14-Year-Old Snowboarder Gaon Choi Just Broke Chloe Kim’s X Games Record As Youngest Halfpipe Winner

There’s no question that 14-year-old snowboarder Gaon Choi will be heralded as “the next Chloe Kim.”

The Olympic gold medalist has mentored Choi—and, on Saturday, Choi broke Kim’s standing record as the youngest X Games snowboard halfpipe gold medalist. At 14 years, two months, Choi clinched the record by a matter of months.

But Choi is a fierce competitor in her own right, which she demonstrated with her decisive victory in her first X Games.

Maddie Mastro of the U.S. took silver and China’s Xuetong Cai took bronze.

“First, I’m so happy,” Choi, who became South Korea’s first Winter X Games medalist, told me via her interpreter. “I’m so glad my efforts [paid off] with a big win like this.”

Choi’s fourth run was the one that secured her the gold medal. She went switch backside 720 melon, backside 540 Weddle, frontside 1080 melon and Cab 720 truck driver.

The runs are judged by overall impression and are no longer scored, but judges said Choi’s third run was the second best of the contest. She had three 900s (switch backside 900 Weddle, Cab 720 melon, frontside 900) and also a backside 900 with a missed grab.

In addition to having the 1080 in her arsenal—huge at this juncture in her young career—Choi surely learned from her mentor, Kim, one of the cardinal rules of competitive snowboarding: almost more importantly than degrees of rotation, judges want to see a rider spin all four directions (frontside; backside; Cab, switch backside). It’s something Kim can do.

Kim is also, so far, the only woman to land back-to-back 1080s in a contest. Choi has landed two 1080s in a run, but not yet back to back. It’s something she’s working on, as well as bigger tricks.

On Friday night in the men’s snowboard halfpipe final, a snowstorm caused the pipe to run slow, limiting riders in their trick selection. That wasn’t an issue for Choi on Saturday.

“I expected that I could successfully manage a 1080, and I’m happy I succeeded,” she said.

Choi, an X Games rookie this year, is sponsored by Monster and trains with the Mammoth snowboard development team—the same as Kim. Choi, who hails from Seoul, and Kim met in Pyeongchang in 2017 when Kim competed at the 2017 Olympic test event.

Kim and her father helped Choi come to the U.S. to train with the Mammoth team. Choi says Kim’s dad, who emigrated to the U.S. in 1982 and then focused full-time on helping his daughter pursue her snowboarding career, has been extremely helpful to her as well.

In 2022, Choi went undefeated in halfpipe in her first year of junior-level FIS competition.

She’s still processing this win, but when asked what she’s looking forward to next, Choi said she’s training hard for Dew Tour. Look out, women’s halfpipe field. Kim, indisputably still the queen of the halfpipe, is taking this year off from competitive snowboarding—but her young mentee might be claiming top prize in her place throughout the season.