Chloe Kim makes it back-to-back golds with Beijing 2022 win

Kim’s celebration after landing the cab 1080 said it all, as the stress of the lead-up to the Games – combined with a morning training session that she said from the finish area had been less than ideal – all washed away once she finished the job that was expected of her.

“I was so proud of myself,” Kim said of her reaction following the winning run, “I had the worst practice, ever. I probably landed my run twice when I’m used to landing it eight times, normally, and so that puts you in a weird headspace. It felt so inconsistent. I didn’t want to feel all that pressure of having to land my first safety run (in competition). I overflowed with emotion when I was able to land it on the first go, and it opened up a lot of opportunity for me to go try something new (in her second and third runs).”

Try something new in her final two runs she did indeed, and although she was unsuccessful, when she does indeed put down the cab 1260 she was going for it will be the most progressive trick ever landed by a woman in competition.

“It was worth it for sure, 1000%,” Kim said of trying the 1260, “That’s what keeps me going. I wish I’d landed it, but next time. I just learned those pretty recently, and I’ve been doing quite bit of them. But I haven’t really done them in this halfpipe, so I was curious to see what would happen. Definitely didn’t go my way, but it’s OK. I did it once in practice, and it went well. We’ll try it another day.”

Second place went to the most experienced rider in the field, as 32-year-old Queralt Castellet of Spain finally earned her piece of Olympic hardware in her fifth time competing at the Games.

After receiving what she felt to be a low score of 69.25 for her first attempt, Castellet returned to the top of the pipe for run two, dropped in, and stepped her game significantly.

Leading things off with a risky switch backside 540 stalefish, Castellet then stomped a Haakonflip melon and a huge frontside air, before finishing off with a couple hammers of her own, with a backside 900 weddle into a frontside 900 melon combination to finish things off resulting in a score of 90.25 and a long-awaited Olympic silver medal and the first Olympic women’s snowboard medal for Spain.