From 'worst practice' to the sublime, Kim is golden girl

ZHANGJIAKOU (China) • Chloe Kim went from her "worst practice ever" where she fell twice and was in a "weird headspace" to producing a sublime performance when it really mattered, retaining her halfpipe snowboarding gold at the Beijing Winter Olympics yesterday.

The American, who at 17 became the youngest woman to win Olympic gold in snowboarding at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, roared back in style after taking nearly two years off the slopes due to burnout to focus on her studies and protect her mental health.

She dominated her rivals at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou with a top score of 94 in her opening run. Spain's Queralt Castellet (90.25) took silver and Sena Tomita (88.25) of Japan was third.

Things started so differently yesterday after an uncharacteristically bad warm-up as Kim struggled to land her primary routine.

Her coaches said she was fighting off nerves. Kim, 21, said: "I had the worst practice ever - I probably landed my run twice when I'm used to landing it eight times normally and that kind of puts you in a weird headspace."

But, just as she did four years ago, she opened the competition by landing a score that no one could top. Kim knew it, too.

When she got to the bottom of her first run, she put her hands to her head, fell on her knees in joy and laughed, as if she had shocked even herself. Her outburst at the bottom was a mix of joy and relief.

"I was like, I don't want to feel all this pressure of not being able to land my first safety run," she said.

"So I just was overflowing with emotion when I was able to land it on the first go."

Her long-time coach Rick Bower noted: "Not to discount any of these riders, but she has a bag of tricks that not anyone else does. And she showcased that in her first run."

Kim's opening run gave her breathing space to try some new tricks to a crowd that included California-born Chinese freestyle skiing star Eileen Gu, but she fell on both her second and third runs.

"My butt hurts," Kim said with a laugh, after attempting an ultra-difficult cab 1260 trick on her final run. "It was worth it though, for sure, a thousand per cent."

She was so disillusioned after Pyeongchang that she threw her gold medal in the bin, but said she "definitely won't be doing that again" with her latest prize.

She struggled to cope with the pressures of fame in the aftermath and said yesterday she had learned to accept it was "unfair to be expected to be perfect".

Having contemplated retirement four years ago, Kim said she was "really excited for everything that's to come" but refused to commit to future Olympic appearances.

Bower admitted it is not out of the realm of possibilities that Kim slides away from competitions for good.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, NYTIMES, REUTERS