Seoul, South Korea
Choi Ga-on walks in very quietly with a faint smile, seemingly camera-shy. But only a month in the past, this teenage South Korean snowboarder surprised the world when she made an incredible comeback from harm to full her remaining halfpipe run on the Winter Olympics, clinching the gold regardless of a brutal crash.
Expectations have been excessive coming into Italy; Choi is a prodigy within the sport, having racked up a plethora of titles on the X Games and International Ski Federation (FIS) World Cups within the years main up to the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.
After cruising into the ladies’s halfpipe finals, she ambitiously began her first run with a elaborate trick, however quickly after, her board caught the lip of the slope.
The 17-year-old snowboarder landed the wrong way up as she slipped down the pipe, mendacity immobile for a number of minutes as spectators gasped and remained silent and medics rushed to her facet.
“Both my knees were not moving, so I thought that was the end of my run,” Choi not too long ago instructed NCS Sports from the South Korean capital.
But when the stretcher arrived, she someway bought up. People cheered within the second, however Choi’s coach was anxious about her, submitting a DNS (Did Not Start) for her second run.
Unbeknownst to everybody, Choi had suffered three fractures in her left hand as well as to her leg accidents, however she nonetheless needed to push on.
“I cried on the ride up and on the slope,” Choi recalled. “But I didn’t want to regret about this moment all my life, so I withdrew the DNS and decided to compete.”
Her second run although ended with one other fall and issues began to look bleak for the precocious teenager.
Choi is the third of 4 siblings born to snowboard fanatic mother and father, the roots of her competitiveness.
“I have an older sister and brother, so anything we did, I didn’t want to lose. I have a competitive spirit thanks to my siblings,” Choi mentioned.
“When we snowboard, I used to follow my brother and whatever trick he did, I had to do it as well – I didn’t want to lose.”
It was the velocity as she flew by way of the winter air over snowy slopes that seven-year-old Choi fell in love with and that was when she determined to pursue the game as a profession.
Her father dropped all the pieces, together with his job, to assist his daughter’s dream, all the time accompanying her wherever. She calls him her good friend, chef and driver as he carries her snowboard up the mountains, cooks Korean meals when overseas, cleans her board and drives 14 hours for her coaching classes.
Meet the highschool senior who gained Olympic gold
At simply 17, South Korea’s Choi Ga-on gained gold within the ladies’s snowboard halfpipe on the Winter Olympics, beating US star Chloe Kim. She talks to NCS about Olympic gold and her relationship with Kim.
“The fact that he quit his job, which he might have enjoyed, and invested his life to support me is an honor for me,” she mentioned.
Choi and her dad began touring overseas – to Japan, New Zealand and the US – the place she may prepare at skilled snowboard halfpipe services due to the shortage of infrastructure in South Korea.
The dedication paid off. She gained her first gold medal on the FIS Snowboarding Junior World Championship in 2022 and grew to become each Korea’s first X-Games gold winner and the youngest X-Games halfpipe gold medalist at 14 years and two months – breaking Chloe Kim’s report – when she gained the SuperPipe in January 2023.
Choi then went on to win her FIS World Cup debut as a 15-year-old at Copper Mountain in December 2023, seemingly destined to make much more historical past at such an early age.
But her rocket-like ascent got here to an abrupt – and nearly remaining – cease at her very subsequent World Cup occasion. During a coaching session earlier than the January 2024 occasion in Laax, Switzerland, Choi hit the lip of the slope whereas working towards a flat Cab 1080, breaking her back within the subsequent crash.
The precocious expertise had to endure three surgical procedures and get six steel pins put in into her back.
“It was an unexpected major injury, so mentally it was really tough,” Choi recalled.
“It was so despairing at the time. My dad, my family, we all suffered then. … Right after the injury, I didn’t want to snowboard at all.”
The prodigy thought-about hanging up her board for good, however a couple of months later, she felt the starvation for the game once more.
“When I began rehabilitation, I naturally thought that I need to snowboard to be happy again, so I focused on recovering.”
Following a layoff of practically a 12 months, she returned to Laax as if nothing had occurred, ending third behind Americans Kim and Maddie Mastro. She then completed runner-up to Kim a month later in Aspen, earlier than turning the offseason right into a time to push and evolve into her finest self.
The outcome? Choi swept the three World Cup events earlier than the 2026 Olympics, getting wins at Secret Garden, Copper Mountain and Laax to develop into one of many favorites in Milan Cortina.
As with any athlete, the Olympics have been Choi’s dream since she began snowboarding, however she says wasn’t nervous in any respect – fairly, that it was a chance to reside out her dream.
But after the brutal crash on the primary run and a second run that wasn’t significantly better, the dream seemed to be extra of a nightmare. But with another likelihood at glory, Choi went back up to the highest of the hill, pondering that the chance to be on this stage could solely come round in one other 4 years – or by no means once more.
“It was snowing heavily, and it was an evening event. The snowflakes shining under the light were really beautiful that I thought to myself that it’s a stage set up for me,” Choi mentioned, describing the scene from the highest of the hill with the eyes of the world taking a look at her.
“I stood there thinking, ‘I will put my best into the third run, even if I die here.’”
Choi’s willpower paid off, producing a near-perfect run with amplitude, velocity and technical skill that shot her to the highest of the leaderboard and impressed each the world and Choi’s idol: Kim.
Choi had seemed up to Kim for a very long time, with the 2 changing into shut after operating into one another a lot at numerous worldwide competitions.
“Even when she falls in her first and second runs, Chloe unnie (the Korean word for older sister) makes a successful third run. Watching her never giving up until the end, I was really motivated to be like her,” Choi mentioned.
After Kim fell on her remaining run, failing to develop into the primary snowboarder to three-peat on the Olympics, Choi grew to become the youngest gold medal-winning snowboarder in Games historical past at 17 years and 101 days outdated.
After her fall, Kim sought out the brand new champion and gave her a giant embrace. “I’ve known Ga-on since she was little. She won her first Olympic gold medal at the same age as I did. It’s such a full-circle moment,” the American mentioned afterward, per NBC.
“She’s talented, but she works hard. And I think that’s why she’s as amazing as she is today. And so, I couldn’t be more proud for her and I’m so happy for her and I hope that she really just soaks in this amazing moment. It was such an honor to compete with her today,” Kim added.
Mentor and mentee had shared the rostrum loads of occasions, however doing so on the Olympics – the last word dream stage – hit Choi otherwise.
“It was such an honor even just to compete with my role model Chloe unnie at the Olympics, which I had only seen on TV, and then to stand on the podium together and congratulate each other really made me happy,” Choi mentioned.
Fans and media welcomed Choi’s wonderful return to Korea together with her gold medal – the nation’s first in snowboarding.
Surrounded by media, the gold medalist instructed the press, “It now feels real.”
When Choi’s not snowboarding, although, she is an strange excessive schooler who enjoys going to cafes together with her associates and is a giant fan of a Okay-pop band, CORTIS.
“I enjoyed good food with my granny, chatted with my sister and brother, and had a pajama party with my friends,” Choi instructed NCS Sports of the issues she did upon returning to Korea.
But she added that her each day life has modified immensely.
“There’s a cafe I always go to with my friends, and now when I go there, people recognize me and line up to get my autograph. I’m happy, but I’m also shy and sometimes uncomfortable. But I’m enjoying it so far.”
Choi additionally bought to see CORTIS carry out at South Korea’s Blue House throughout a luncheon with President Lee Jae Myung and the First Lady, and ultimately, recorded a dancing video with the band – making her second dream come true.
“I always took photos at a photobooth that has a Keonho (a member of CORTIS) frame, and I told my friends that I will meet the group one day. … I met them sooner than I expected, so I was really shy,” the teenager mentioned with a delicate blush.
Choi is having fun with the celebrity, however she is aware of that snowboarding nonetheless comes first.
Her eyes are already on the 2027 world championships the place she hopes to win her first world title, one thing her idol Kim has completed 3 times, and the following Winter Olympics within the French Alps the place she is going to look to defend her gold.
“I want to continue building a good career and become a better snowboarder than I am right now,” Choi mentioned.