LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — Chloe Kim’s first truly meaningful halfpipe ride in nearly 11 months will be anywhere but the Olympics.
Even for one of the best skiers in the world, that’s daunting. She injured her shoulder during a training session in Switzerland in the second week of January and took a detour on the eve of the Olympics.
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“I’m very anxious,” Kim said Monday, two days before she begins her quest for a third consecutive gold medal. “But luckily, I have matcha, the atmosphere is great, and my family is here, so we’ll be fine.”
The 25-year-old American said she returned to the halfpipe about two weeks ago wearing a brace on her left shoulder that “in a fun way … makes my riding better.”
Her coach, Rick Ball, told The Associated Press that training has been going well since Kim returned to the snow.
“Obviously, it’s not an ideal situation, but given all the factors and the work she’s done over the past 15 years, she’s in a position to deal with it,” he said. “While it’s not what we wanted, she can still compete for gold.”
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King talked about the mental reset she was able to enjoy, in large part because she won a competition in Aspen in January 2025 that put her on the Olympic team more than a year before the Games. Two months later she won the world title and then took some time off.
Her plan is to ease into the Olympic season — lots of practice, then a competition in Copper Mountain, Colo., in December, and then another in Leix, Switzerland, in January.
She made it through low-pressure qualifying at Copper Mountain, but fell and injured her shoulder while preparing for the final. She recovered from that injury, but suffered a more serious injury a month before she jumped into the halfpipe in Italy.
That made Copper Mountain’s one point the only one King has scored since last March. Once she gets into it, muscle memory often overcomes nerves, she said.
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“I’m very confident,” King said. “I feel really good about myself physically and mentally, and that’s the most important thing right now.”
When healthy, King will be a clear favorite even in a rapidly growing sport. The increasing difficulty of South Korea’s 17-year-old Gaon Choi may pose the biggest threat to Kim Jong-un’s third consecutive championship.
But King himself was always on top on the halfpipe. She said this week’s big run was like nothing she’d ever done. This will be a tougher version of her win in Beijing – involving the tricks of riding front and back and spinning both ways in those approaches.
“If I can do that, no matter where I am, I’ll be very satisfied,” King said.
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https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
