Chloe Kim’s Protégé Foils Olympic Three-Peat Dream — and She’s Celebrating Anyway

MILAN — Under the soft glow of floodlights and a steady Alpine snowfall, Chloe Kim stood at the top of the halfpipe with history within reach.

A third consecutive Olympic gold medal would have placed her alone in snowboard folklore. No woman had ever completed a halfpipe three-peat. But when the final scores flashed at Livigno Snow Park, it was her teenage protégé — not Kim — who stood atop the podium.

Seventeen-year-old Gaon Choi delivered a fearless final run to capture gold at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, edging Kim into silver and rewriting the narrative of the night.

For Kim, the result stung competitively. But emotionally, it was something else entirely.

“I’ve known her since she was little,” Kim said afterward, smiling as Choi wiped tears from her eyes. “It means a lot to see that I’ve inspired the next generation and they’re now out here killing it.”

A Final That Turned on One Run

Kim, 25, entered the Games chasing history. Despite managing a torn labrum in her shoulder, she cruised through qualifiers in her first competition of the season, breaking 90 on her opening run and looking every bit the reigning champion.

By Thursday night’s final in Livigno, she appeared firmly in control.

Her first run scored 88 points — clean, composed, and technically sharp. As competitors struggled to land their combinations, including fellow Americans Bea Kim and Maddy Mastro, Kim’s score held through most of the competition.

Then came Choi.

The South Korean teenager crashed heavily on her opening run and required a concussion check. She fell again on her second attempt. For a moment, her Olympic debut seemed destined for disappointment.

Instead, she reset.

“It wasn’t so much about having huge resolve,” Choi said later. “I just kept thinking about the technique I was originally doing.”

Her third run was electric — amplitude, precision, and confidence stitched together in a performance that earned 90.25 points and vaulted her to the top of the leaderboard.

All eyes shifted back to Kim for the final ride of the night.

Needing to retake the lead, she launched into her cab double cork 1080 — a trick she had landed cleanly before. This time, she fell.

Her score remained 88. The three-peat was gone.

A Hug at the Bottom of the Pipe

What followed captured the spirit of the sport.

As Choi’s team erupted in tears and cheers, Kim met her at the finish with a warm embrace. During the medal lineup, Kim stood beside her protégé and pointed toward her excitedly, urging the crowd to recognize the moment.

It was a scene of passing torches rather than rivalry.

The two have known each other for nearly a decade, their connection forged ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics, where Kim became the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboard medal at 17 — the same age Choi is now.

Choi’s father developed a friendship with Kim’s father, who emigrated from South Korea to the United States. Kim’s family offered guidance as Choi’s career began to blossom.

“Chloe’s dad gave my dad a lot of advice,” Choi recalled in a previous interview after winning her first World Cup event at age 14. “It made me who I am today.”

Kim and her father later helped Choi train in the United States at Mammoth Mountain in California, nurturing both her technique and belief.

A Historic Gold for South Korea

Choi’s victory carries significance beyond personal triumph.

She becomes the first South Korean woman to win an Olympic medal in snow sports — and delivers her country’s first snowboard gold medal. Standing alongside bronze medalist Mitsuki Ono of Japan, Choi represented a broader shift in the sport’s global balance.

“We’re seeing a big shift to Asians being dominant in snow sports,” Kim said earlier this week. She has often spoken about cultural expectations she faced growing up.

“I’ve had aunts telling me that I shouldn’t snowboard, get a real career, focus on school. It’s cool to see that shift happening.”

Choi echoed that sentiment before the Games, telling Olympics.com she hoped to introduce snowboarding more widely in South Korea.

“I also believe that enjoying the Games is just as important as achieving good results,” she said.

On Thursday night, she achieved both.

The Legacy Beyond Gold

For Kim, the silver medal does little to diminish her place in Olympic history. Gold medals in 2018 and 2022 cemented her status as one of the sport’s defining athletes. The three-peat would have been historic — but her influence may prove more enduring.

In many ways, this was the full-circle moment she had predicted.

Earlier in the week, she described seeing Choi as “a mirror reflection of myself and my family.” That reflection now stands as Olympic champion.

There was no visible bitterness from Kim, only pride. The competitor in her will undoubtedly replay the final fall. But the mentor in her appeared fulfilled.

As snow continued to fall over Livigno, the symbolism felt unmistakable: one champion stepping aside, another rising — not as a stranger, but as part of the same story.

Chloe Kim’s three-peat dream may have slipped away in a single run. Yet in the larger arc of the sport, she won something different — proof that her legacy extends far beyond medals.