All eyes were locked on Chloe Kim, who was trying to chase what Shaun White couldn’t achieve back at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games. She aspired for that three-peat Olympic gold medal, but on Thursday at Livigno Snow Park, history slipped through her fingers.

NBC Olympics & Paralympics reported that Kim claimed her third career Olympic medal in the women’s halfpipe, but this time she settled for silver as South Korea’s Choi Gaon walked away with gold with a massive 90.25 points in her third run, which eclipsed the American’s first run, where she scored 88.00 points, and didn’t improve in her following tries.

For Chloe Kim, this podium came with a lot of physical and mental resilience. Just one month before these Games, she dislocated her shoulder during a training run in Switzerland, tearing her labrum in an awkward fall that threatened to derail her entire Olympic campaign. And as she was forced off her snowboard for many days, the 25-year-old lost crucial preparation time.

However, that didn’t deter her ambitions for Olympic glory. “I feel good. Happy to be here. There is definitely a lot of pressure, but I do think that the Olympics are so special because we have so much support globally,” Kim said after topping the charts on Wednesday. Her qualifying run gave her an opportunity, and it was something that White was anticipating prior to the run.

He said, “It’s really impressive when that big score comes in and you get all those points. So I think today’s that day where you just want to put in a nice score. And hopefully Chloe’s on her way to finish first in this, which would drop her last in the finals tomorrow. So that’s like a strategy as well, is that you not only want to get through, but you want to have that last position, that final say on finals.”

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So, being the last one to start, she took advantage of it well and landed a backside 720. Before that, she did a switch-backside air, continued with a switch double cork 1080, and committed to an inverted 540 to end her run. Kim was also the favorite to win the gold until the very last run. However, Choi’s points allowed her to rise above the American snowboarder, ending the hopes of what could have been a historic three-peat.

But are you aware that her South Korean rival’s run wasn’t very smooth at the Milan Cortina Winter Games?

Defeating Chloe Kim in Milan wasn’t a walk in the park

The Choi Gaon who defeated Chloe Kim in Milan once had her career flash before her own eyes at the young age of fifteen. It was the Laax World Cup in 2014 when she fractured her back while practicing a frontside double cork 1080, and the injury required surgery and forced her to miss the entire season, including the Winter Youth Olympics on home soil in Gangwon.

“I haven’t watched any of the Gangwon 2024 competitions—I was so upset. I couldn’t avoid it, even though I was traumatised,” the South Korean snowboarder once recalled those sleepless nights she endured. However, the scare continued at the Milano Cortina Olympics, owing to this particular moment.

Following a spectacular first run, Gaon attempted a front-side 1080, but she hit the lip of the pipe and skidded into the middle of the course. She was lying motionless, with commentator Todd Richards stating, “That lip right there is hard as polished marble. It’s icy, this halfpipe is very set up.”

Immediately, it wasn’t confirmed if she would continue, but it was her third run, where she secured a whopping 90.25 points to stay above Chloe Kim and take away that Olympic gold medal.