Many eyes were on United States snowboarder Chloe Kim during Thursday’s Winter Olympics schedule in Milano Cortina, Italy, as she attempted to achieve a historic feat.
Kim, who won gold medals in each of her previous two Olympic appearances, had a chance to win a third consecutive gold medal in the women’s halfpipe event. While the event got off to an exciting start for the two-time gold medalist, newcomer Choi Gaon from Korea surprisingly seized the lead.
Although Kim initially held the top of the leaderboard after her first run, Gaon achieved an impressive 90.25 score in her third and final run. In her second and third runs, Kim was unable to perform any better than her first run’s 88 score, and ultimately reached the podium as the event’s silver medal winner.
Read more: Chloe Kim Fails to Achieve Olympics History With Women’s Halfpipe Medal
With Kim chasing history at the Olympic Games, her in-person supporters included family members, boyfriend Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns, and multi-time Olympic medalist Shaun White. The snowboarding legend spoke about Kim’s failed attempt to make history by becoming the first competitor to win gold in the same event three consecutive times.
“It’s a wild sport. You can get injured. Someone can learn a new trick overnight. There’s a lot of variables. It’s never a sure thing,” White said, per ESPN.
While he didn’t have any easy explanations for Kim’s second-place finish, he also suggested she is still top tier when it comes to the sport.
“She’s a legend. She’s got two golds. She’s no stranger to pressure. It just wasn’t her night, I think,” he said.
In addition to those comments, which White shared an hour after the women’s halfpipe final, he shared a reaction on his Instagram Story, with a slide spotlighting Kim as a silver medal winner. He added three clapping hands emojis to it.
One legend recognizes another. White, a five-time Olympian, claimed gold medals for halfpipe in 2006 at Torino, Italy, then in 2010 at Vancouver, Canada, and in 2018 at PyeongChang, South Korea. He retired from competing after the 2022 Winter Olympics, where he finished fourth in the event.
Despite being upset in the women’s halfpipe final, Kim also commended Choi Gaon, who achieved the gold medal performance in her Olympic debut.
“It’s all about passing the torch, so there’s no one else I would have rather stood next to on the podium than her,” she said of the 17-year-old snowboarder, adding, “I’m so proud of her, and I’m so excited to see what she does next.”
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