The Teenage Takeover: Gaon Choi Shocks the World, Upsetting Chloe Kim’s Olympic Three-Peat
The women’s halfpipe final at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will go down as one of the most dramatic nights in snowboarding history. All eyes were on Team USA’s Chloe Kim as she attempted a historic "three-peat"—a feat never accomplished by any snowboarder. However, riding through a recently torn labrum in her left shoulder, Kim’s heroic run fell just short after a crash on a cab double cork 1080.
Enter 17-year-old South Korean prodigy Gaon Choi. After crashing on her first two runs, Choi displayed nerves of absolute steel, stomping a massive final run to score a 90.25 and claim the gold medal. The win makes Choi the youngest Olympic snowboarding champion in history at 17 years and 101 days old. In a beautiful display of sportsmanship, Kim—who has mentored Choi since 2017—was the first to embrace her at the bottom.
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