United States snowboarder Chloe Kim is one gold away from making Olympic history.
The Team USA two-time defending champion will compete in the women's halfpipe final at the 2026 Winter Olympics on Thursday with a chance to become the first snowboarder to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals.
Entering Thursday's final, only fellow American snowboarder Shaun White has won three gold medals over his Olympic career, doing so in 2006, 2010 and 2018, but no one has won golds in three consecutive Olympics.
The 25-year-old Kim is participating in her third Games and has a resume unmatched in women’s snowboarding. Her legacy can grow if she adds her name to the history books on Thursday.
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Kim captured her first gold at the 2018 PyeongChang Games at age 17, then repeated the feat four years later in the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.
On top of her Olympic triumphs, Kim has also won three World Championships, as well as earning gold medals in seven X Games, with a silver and a bronze in the 2014 and 2017 editions of the latter competition.
Kim's current Olympic cycle, however, has been different from those she experienced in the past. That's because the snowboarder couldn't complete her training ahead of the 2026 Olympics after she was sidelined with a torn labrum in her left shoulder until just weeks before the Winter Games began.
She resumed training roughly two weeks ago and confirmed her presence at the Olympics, saying the injury wasn't as bad as initially feared.
“Honestly, I’m just happy to be here because for a little bit a couple months ago it wasn’t looking too certain,” Kim said.
Despite the setback, Kim dominated qualifying Wednesday with the only score (90.25) above 90.
"I feel good. Happy to be here," Kim said. "There is a definitely a lot of pressure, but I do think that the Olympics are so special because we have so much support globally."
Three-time champion White, as well as Anna Gasser and Ester Ledecka, each attempted Olympic three-peats in past Games but came up short, with Ledecka and Gasser failing this year. Ledecka did not even qualify for last Sunday's final, while Gasser fell short in the final on Monday.
“No halfpipe snowboarder has ever done this,” Kim said. “I think if I’m able to pull that off, regardless of where I place, I’ll be really content with that.”
Kim’s final run is scheduled for Thursday at 1:30 p.m. ET. It will be shown on NBC and Peacock.