American snowboarding star Chloe Kim said Thursday she suffered “the stupidest fall” during training and dislocated her shoulder, jeopardizing her chance to win a third consecutive gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Italy next month.
kim posted video The crash occurred earlier this week in Lax, Switzerland, while she was practicing for a major Olympic tune-up next weekend. She fell on the ice and slid across the halfpipe.
She did not specify which shoulder she injured and said she was “trying to stay optimistic” about competing at the Olympics but “I don’t have much clarity right now.” The 25-year-old said she is scheduled to undergo an MRI on Friday, which will reveal the extent of the damage.
“The positive thing is I have range, I’m not in as much pain, I don’t want it to keep coming out, which it has,” she said. “I’m just trying to stay really optimistic. I feel really good about where my snowboarding is right now, so I know the moment I get cleared and ready to go, I should be fine.”
Kim’s absence will deprive the Winter Games of one of its biggest names and one of its best stories.
She is trying to become the first action-sports athlete to win three consecutive gold medals. Shaun White won three halfpipe golds, but they were spread over five sports.
Kim was the breakout star of the 2018 Olympics, a bubbly teenager who won gold in her parents’ home country of South Korea. Four years ago in China, she won again, a victory that included her message about the ups and downs of success and fame.
Despite all this, no one has come close to beating him.
At the Winter X Games two years ago, Kim became the first woman to land a 1260-degree spin in competition. Previously, she was the first woman to land a double-cork 1080 – two flips and a spin – and the first woman to land back-to-back 1080s.
She was working on adding to that repertoire for the Milan Cortina Games and, if healthy, would be a favorite to win again. This injury puts all those things into question. The Olympic qualifying round in women’s halfpipe is February 11.
The LAX Open is scheduled for next weekend, and even if Kim gets a clean bill of health, she will likely go to the Olympics without competing in the finals of an event this season.
Kim qualified for the U.S. team by winning a competition last year and has had a light program in ’25-26. She fell during warm-ups for the finals in Copper Mountain, Colorado last month and was ruled out after injuring her shoulder. That injury was not considered serious.
Of her latest shoulder injury, she said: “It should heal. I’m just hoping it doesn’t take too long, but I’ll be resting for the next little while.”
