ZHANGJIAKOU, China (Reuters) -American Chloe Kim ruled the women’s halfpipe final and picked up the gold on Thursday, defending her winning streak by easily edging out Spanish rival Queralt Castellet, who took the silver medal.
Kim, who at 17 became the youngest woman ever to win Olympic gold in snowboarding at the Pyeongchang Games in 2018, roared back in style after taking nearly two years off the slopes.
Kim won the Beijing halfpipe with a top score of 94.
Castellet of Spain took silver, while Sena Tomita of Japan won the bronze medal.
From her first run, Kim led the final, posting her top score out of the gate, while Castellet got the next highest 90.25 and Tomita of Japan won bronze with 88.25.
Each of the 12 boarders in the final got three runs in the halfpipe, with their ranking determined by their best score out of those runs.
The course, officially called the Secret Garden Olympic Halfpipe, is more than 200 metres long and 22 metres wide. The inner height of the halfpipe walls are 7 metres high.
(Reporting by Winni Zhou and Mari Saito; Editing by Michael Perry)
