Sawt Falasteen - US snowboard star Kim stays on track for historic Olympic hat-trick

Kim, who had an injury-disrupted build-up to the Milan-Cortina Games, shot to the top of the halfpipe qualifying times with a score of 90.25 on her first run.

Japan's Sara Shimizu, who won silver at last year's world championships, was second on the charts after posting 87.50 in the second of her two runs, with America's Maddie Mastro third (86.00).

No snowboarder, man or woman, has won three gold medals at consecutive Olympics -- with two athletes missing the chance to do so earlier in the Games in Italy.

Kim, who suffered a dislocated shoulder last month while training in Switzerland, denied she felt rusty despite her lack of recent competitive action.

- Muscle memory -

"I've been doing this for 22 years, OK? Muscle memory is a thing. I might be better at snowboarding than I am at walking," she said.

"But no, it didn't feel rusty. Obviously there's some nerves, but I think at the Olympics, I'm just so happy that I made it, especially this time around. So I honestly feel like I wasn't as nervous as the previous ones."

The 25-year-old said she had been able to put her shoulder injury out of her mind.

"I feel like my shoulder's been really good. She's been very well-behaved, so I'm grateful for that," she said.

"We haven't had any hiccups. I've been working relentlessly on getting it as strong as possible and obviously the shoulder brace is really helpful.

"We have amazing medical staff. I have an amazing physical therapist. So it takes a village, but it's working, so go team."

Two-time defending champion Kim has dominated women's halfpipe since the 2022 Beijing Games, winning X Games gold in 2024 and 2025 and claiming her third world championship title last year.

Ester Ledecka, from the Czech Republic, and Austria's Anna Gasser have both blown their chances of becoming the first snowboarders in Olympic history to win three titles in a row over the past few days.

Kim said it would be a "cool" to be the first snowboarder to achieve the feat but was adamant she was satisfied with her career.

"I'm proud that I've been able to push it as far as I have, so we'll see how it goes down tomorrow night," she said.

Chinese veteran Liu Jiayu, the silver medallist at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, landed heavily towards the end of her second run, lying motionless on her back in the snow.

Officials raced towards her and she received lengthy medical treatment before being towed away on a stretcher, with her condition unknown.

In the halfpipe, competitors perform a series of tricks while snowboarding down a slope with a semi-cylindrical shape. They are scored on the breadth and difficulty of the jumps.

The top 12 qualifiers advanced to the final with scores based on the better of their two runs.

F.AbuShamala--SF-PST