Winter Olympics: Chloe Kim wins snowboard halfpipe gold to retain title

Chloe Kim won snowboard halfpipe gold with incredible ease to retain her Winter Olympic title from 2018.

Unbeaten since 2019, the 21-year-old American blew away her competition with a 94.00 score on her opening run.

Such was her lead, Kim attempted 1260s - never before landed in women's halfpipe competition - on her second and third runs but fell both times.

Spain's Queralt Castellet won silver with 90.25 while Japan's Sena Tomita took the bronze medal with 88.25.

Speaking about her emotional reaction to landing her first run, Kim said: "I was so proud of myself.

"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."

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In Pyeongchang four years ago, Kim - then just 17 - became the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboarding gold medal.

But in the aftermath of her success, she struggled with the pressures and fame that accompanied it, and later took 19 months away from the sport in 2019-20 and enrolled at Princeton University in New Jersey.

Following her return to snowboarding in 2021, she won a second World Championship gold before landing her sixth X-Games title.

"I am more prepared this time," she added. "Luckily, it was a learning curve since the last time.

"Now that I've grown up a little more and I understand boundaries and I have an amazing therapist, so I think it will make the journey a lot more doable."

Her victory at the Beijing Games makes her the first woman to win back-to-back snowboard halfpipe titles in Olympic history.

The event was added to the Olympic programme in 1998 - two years before Kim was born.

Like father, like son

Elsewhere, Austria's Johannes Strolz won gold in the men's Alpine combined - and created a little piece of history.

The 29-year-old's success sees him emulate his father Hubert, who finished first in the same discipline in Calgary in 1988. They are the first father-son pair to win an Olympic title in the same Alpine skiing event.

Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde followed up his bronze in the men's super-G with a silver and Canada's James Crawford took the bronze.

Kilde's medal follows a difficult Games so far for his partner, American Mikaela Shiffrin.

Shiffrin was a favourite for medals in both the giant slalom and the slalom but pulled up early in her attempts at both events. She has suggested she might make way for a team-mate to complete in her place in Friday's super G.

Kilde had defended Shiffrin in the wake of her shock early exits and Shiffrin duly congratulated him on his success via social media.

Strolz was also thinking about his nearest and dearest after picking up his medal.

"It means the world to me because I was not on the team any more last summer, and made it back into the team, got the full support again," he said.

"When I think about it, all the pictures and the gold medal of my father, it's hard for me not to cry. It's just a dream coming true."

Ireland's Jack Gower, a distant relative of former England cricket captain David Gower, finished 12th.

Johaug and Schouten earn second golds

Norway's Therese Johaug won gold in the women's 10km classic to add to an impressive medal haul.

The 33-year-old, who also won the first gold medal at this year's Winter Olympics - in the 15km skiathlon on Saturday, came into the Games with 19 World Championship medals to her name and won bronze over this distance at Sochi in 2014.

Finland's Kerttu Niskanen, finished less than half a second behind to win the silver with her compatriot Krista Parmakoski securing the bronze medal.

There was a second gold of the Games too for Irene Schouten of the Netherlands, who added the speed skating 5,000m title to her victory in the 3,000m earlier in the week.

Schouten, the world 5,000m champion, set an Olympic record with a winning time of six minutes 43.51 seconds.

Silver went to Canada's Isabelle Weidemann, with Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic getting bronze.

In the men's snowboard cross, Austria's Alessandro Haemmerle took the gold medal in a photo finish from Eliot Grondin of Canada, with Italy's Omar Visintin third.

A star-studded quartet of Natalie Geisenberger, Johannes Ludwig and Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt helped Germany edge to gold in the luge team relay.

All four had already won across the women's singles, men's singles and doubles in Beijing and they narrowly pipped Austria, with Latvia winning the bronze medal.

Meanwhile, Ashley Caldwell, Christopher Lillis and Justin Schoenefeld helped the USA win gold in the inaugural mixed team aerials.

Hosts China, who ended up with silver, led early on but Lillis recorded the highest score of the competition (135.00) before Schoenefeld sealed their victory. Canada held off Switzerland to win the bronze.

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