LIVIGNO, Italy, Feb 12 (Reuters) - South Korea's Choi Ga-on denied American Chloe Kim a three-peat in the women's snowboard halfpipe at the Winter Olympics on Thursday, staging a stunning comeback from a crash to win gold on a snowy night in the Italian Alps.
Kim took silver, while the bronze went to Mitsuki Ono of Japan in the mountain town of Livigno, near the Swiss border.
The 17-year-old Choi, making her Olympic debut, looked like she would have to withdraw after she flipped upside down and crash-landedin the first of three runs.
She sat on the ground for several minutes as medical staff attended to her before riding down on her own and in the second round she fluffed a landing and fell backwards.
Choi shook the disappointment off, however, delivering complex jumps and clean landings in her third attempt to post a stunning score of 90.25, lifting her above Kim's leading 88. Only the best score from the three runs counted.
"It's the kind of story you only see in dreams, so I'm incredibly happy it happened today," Choi said.
She told reporters that she hurt her knee in the fall and had trouble walking immediately afterwards.
"After the first run, I actually cried really hard, thinking maybe I should just quit the Olympics here," Choi said.
"But the thought kept coming back to me: 'You can do this. You have to go on'. That's what pushed me forward," she added.
Kim, recovering from a shoulder injury, had a final chance to grab gold but fell backwards on a landing. Choi began crying when she realised Kim's mistake guaranteed her victory.
NO CONSECUTIVE THREE-PEAT
The halfpipe features riders sliding across a 22-foot-tall, U-shaped ramp and performing acrobatic manoeuvres in the air. Kim took halfpipe gold at Pyeongchang 2018 and Beijing 2022.
No snowboarder - not even men's great Shaun White - has won three straight Olympic golds.
American White, who was in the crowd on Thursday, claimed three but they were in 2006, 2010 and 2018. He is now retired.
Kim smiled and laughed at the bottom of the halfpipe as she stood with the other medallists. She grinned and bowed on the podium and clapped when the gold medal was draped around Choi's neck.
The 25-year-old Kim was competing with her shoulder held in place by a brace after her accident in January forced her to stay off her board for two weeks. She said she will need surgery after she flies home.
"I haven’t been able to practise as much as I would’ve liked," Kim said. "Just proud of myself for landing a run and walking away with a medal."
At 17, Choi is the same age Kim was when she became the youngest snowboarder to win a gold medal in 2018.
"There’s no one else I would have rather stood next to on the podium than her," Kim said of Choi. "I’m so proud of her, and I’m so excited to see what she does next."
Korean supporters in Livigno were thrilled by Choi's victory.
"I was really looking forward to it, but she got injured and failed on her first and second attempt so I was a little anxious," said fan Ten Lee. "She succeeded on the last attempt. I’m very happy and want to congratulate her.”
American Maddie Mastro failed to complete her signature tricks on all three runs, stumbling on the landing each time and finished 12th.
“The first hit got the best of me," she said. "It happens, and it happened to me tonight. I’m proud that I kept trying and kept showing up."
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Additional reporting by Jenna Zucker and Gavino Gray; Editing by Ed Osmond and Ken Ferris)
