Chloe Kim Wins Gold Medal for Snowboarding Halfpipe at Olympics 2022

Chloe Kim is still golden.

The American star successfully defended her gold medal in the women's snowboarding halfpipe on Wednesday at the 2022 Beijing Olympics with a score of 94.00. She was joined by Queralt Castellet of Spain (90.25 for silver) and Sena Tomita of Japan (88.25 for bronze) on the medal podium.

The 12 finalists were each given three runs with their highest score counting toward the medal race, and Kim jumped into first with her opening run and never relinquished the lead.

Here is a look at the final scores for all the competitors, per the Olympics' official website:

1. Chloe Kim (USA), 94.00
2. Queralt Castellet (ESP), 90.25
   
3. Sena Tomita (JPN), 88.25
   
4. Cai Xuetong (CHN), 81.25
   
5. Ruki Tomita (JPN), 80.50
6. Elizabeth Hosking (CAN), 79.25
7. Berenice Wicki (SUI), 76.25
8. Liu Jiayu (CHN), 73.50
9. Mitsuki Ono (JPN), 71.50
10. Brooke Dhondt (CAN), 66.75
11. Leilani Ettel (GER), 57.50
12. Qiu Leng (CHN), 53.75

Frankly, anything but a Kim victory would have qualified as a surprise in Beijing.

Not only was she the defending Olympic champion, she also set the bar during qualifying with the highest score. Her path to gold also got a little bit easier when American teammate Maddie Mastro placed just outside of the 12-rider cutoff with a 13th place finish.

Mastro is the reigning world runner-up.

Still, the strong field of challengers featured two-time world champion Cai Xuetong of China, 2020 X Games winner Castellet and Japan's Mitsuki Ono, who finished in second place during qualifying.

It didn't take long for Kim to make a statement to those challengers.

She unleashed an incredible opening run to take the lead with a score of 94.00. She was quite emotional on the bottom of the hill, and the NBC broadcast even captured her saying she was worried because she struggled so much at practice coming into the competition.

There were no struggles during the run, and it was fairly clear the rest of the field was competing for silver.

With that first run as something of a safety cushion, Kim took a chance on her second run by attempting a 1260 after a frontside 1080. Unfortunately for the victor, she fell and was unable to put an exclamation mark on her brilliant opening performance.

The race for silver and bronze took center stage before Kim's last run, and Castellet had the advantage thanks to her own impressive second run that bested everyone but the gold-medal winner.

Tomita's second run was also in medal position as the third-best score, which mean she and Castellet were left holding their breath for the final runs for Xuetong and Ono.

While she may be a two-time world champion, Xuetong missed a grab on her last run and fell just short of the podium. Ono fared even worse and fell on one of her jumps, securing the medals for the three atop the podium.