Chloe Kim is making this halfpipe thing look easy. With her second World Cup win of the season and her eighth win in a row, Kim led the U.S. women’s Half Pipe snowboarding team to a fairly dominant performance in Switzerland at the LAAX Open. Arielle Gold made it happen on her third run to finish in second while Kelly Clark, who finished third in qualifiers, ended in fourth. Elena Hight finished eighth to cap off the dominant finish for the U.S. women that saw them capture half of the top eight spots.
Barring injury, it’s hard to see a scenario where Kim loses at the Olympic championships next year in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Those eight straight wins include two X Games golds. Kim shines in the spotlight. The real question is if the U.S. women can possibly sweep the Olympic podium in South Korea? Gold and Hight are just out of the top three in the World Cup standings and the icon, Clark, the 2002 gold medalist, is at number nine. A little good fortune during the Olympic tournament and the podium steps could be fully draped in red, white and blue.
With two events down, Kim now leads China’s Liu Jiayu in the World Cup standings by 750 points. On the men’s side, Sun Valley, Idaho’s Chase Josey won his first World Cup event as the U.S. team held down three of the six podium spots in the halfpipe event in Switzerland.
