Near-perfect performance lands gold for snowboard prodigy Chloe Kim

Chloe Kim, a Californian of South Korean descent, won Winter Olympics gold in the women’s snowboard halfpipe on Tuesday with a near-perfect performance at the age of 17.

Kim, whose parents emigrated to the United States from Seoul in 1982, scored 93.75 points with her first of three runs.

That mark would have been good enough for victory, but Kim thrilled the Pyeongchang crowd at the Phoenix Snow Park by scoring 98.25 – 1.75 short of perfect – for her third and final run to clinch gold.

“I am a little overwhelmed,” said Kim, who is certainly a star in the United States and South Korea after her display.

“It’s the best outcome I could have asked for, it’s been such a long journey.

“This whole experience has been insane. You hear so much about the Olympics but actually being a part of it is a completely different story. I am so fortunate to be able to go through it.

“To share my story with the world has been amazing.”

China’s Liu Jiayu was second with a best score of 89.75 and Arielle Gold took bronze with 85.75.

Kim would not have been happy merely to have landed gold. But she was thrilled to have secured victory with an astounding performance.

“I knew if I went home with the gold medal knowing I could do better I wasn’t going to be very satisfied,” she added.

“I did put down a really good run (in the first run) but I was like – ‘I can do better than that’.

“I knew that I wanted to do that third run, I wanted to do the back-to-back 10s, go bigger and better.”

Kim managed to produce her spellbinding performance despite feeling peckish after not finishing off her breakfast.

Kim is the second 17-year-old from the USA to win snowboard gold here, after Red Gerard’s victory in the snowboard slopestyle on Sunday.