Choi Gaon: Snowboard Halfpipe Olympic Gold Medalist, After Battling A Spinal Fracture

Born in 2008, high school snowboarder Choi Gaon (Sehwa High School) claimed the gold medal with a stunning performance and in peak form at the 2026 Milano–Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Olympics.

Choi won the women’s snowboard halfpipe final held at the Livigno Snowpark in Italy with a score of 90.25 points.

During her first run, she took a hard fall when her board caught the edge of the pipe early in the routine. After receiving a brief check-up, she stumbled again at the start of her second run, seemingly falling out of medal contention.

However, pushing through to the third and final run, Choi delivered a flawless performance on her third attempt, pulling off a dramatic comeback victory. She burst into tears of joy as her perseverance was rewarded with the top score.

The women’s snowboard halfpipe — in which athletes are judged on spins, flips, and jumps performed on a semi-cylindrical slope — has long been dominated by elite riders such as Shaun White and Chloe Kim.

Chloe Kim, who achieved back-to-back Olympic golds at the 2018 PyeongChang and 2022 Beijing Winter Games, had reigned supreme in this event.

Choi first burst onto the international scene in January 2023, when she won the halfpipe event at the X Games as the youngest champion in history, not yet 15 years old. That December, she claimed her first World Cup title, solidifying her status as a rising star.

At the height of her growth in early 2024, Choi suffered a serious back injury during a World Cup event in Laax, Switzerland, which required surgery. After dedicating a full year to rehabilitation, she made a return to the World Cup circuit in 2025, overcoming tremendous difficulties.

By winning gold at age 17 years and 3 months, Choi broke Chloe Kim’s record set at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics for the youngest gold medalist in this event (17 years and 10 months), heralding the arrival of a new queen of snowboarding — Choi Ga-on.

Choi Gaon: Snowboard Halfpipe Olympic Gold Medalist, After Battling a Spinal Fracture — Choi Ga-on: Snowboard Halfpipe Olympic Gold Medalist, After Battling a Spinal Fracture

Gaon Choi, Snowboarder Born in 2008

Born on 3 November 2008 in Yangpyeong County, Gyeonggi Province, Gaon Choi is a Korean snowboarder who graduated from Sehwa Girls’ Middle School and is currently attending Sehwa Girls’ High School. She began snowboarding at the age of seven under the influence of her father and made her competitive debut at eight, finishing third in the junior division at the 2016 Dalma Cup Snowboard Competition.

In the 2021–22 season, she won the women’s halfpipe title at the 2022 FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships, and in the 2022–23 season, she became the youngest winner of the women’s SuperPipe at the X Games. She added another youngest-winner record in the women’s snowboard SuperPipe at the Dew Tour, and in the 2023–24 season, she made her FIS Snowboard Halfpipe World Cup debut at Copper Mountain, claiming gold in her very first World Cup appearance and becoming the first Korean woman to win a World Cup halfpipe event.

At the 2024 World Cup in Switzerland, she suffered a serious spinal fracture. Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin covered 70 million KRW in medical expenses, enabling her to undergo surgery and a full year of rehabilitation before making her comeback. Though she struggled with form in the 2024–25 season due to the injury, she bounced back in the 2025–26 season with victories at the FIS Secret Garden World Cup, the FIS Copper Mountain World Cup, and the FIS Laax World Cup.

Starting with her win at the FIS Snowboard World Cup Secret Garden in December 2025, she went on to win again that same month at Copper Mountain and then in Laax in January 2026, completing a three-event winning streak that raised expectations for her future. Selected to represent Korea at the 2026 Milano–Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Olympics, she went on to deliver the nation’s first-ever gold medal in a snow event.

※ 9-year-old Choi Gaon

Awards and honors

2022 – 1st place, women’s halfpipe, FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships
2023 – 1st place, Snowboard SuperPipe, X Games Aspen
2023 – 1st place, women’s snowboard SuperPipe, Dew Tour
2023 – 1st place, women’s halfpipe, 2023/24 FIS Copper Mountain Snowboard World Cup
2025 – 3rd place, women’s halfpipe, 2024/25 FIS Laax Snowboard World Cup
2025 – 2nd place, women’s halfpipe, 2024/25 FIS Aspen Snowboard World Cup
2025 – 3rd place, women’s halfpipe, Snow League 1st Event
2025 – 1st place, women’s halfpipe, 2025/26 FIS Secret Garden Snowboard World Cup
2025 – 1st place, women’s halfpipe, 2025/26 FIS Copper Mountain Snowboard World Cup
2026 – 1st place, women’s halfpipe, 2025/26 FIS Laax Snowboard World Cup

※ Additional milestones:

2022 – Junior World Championships title
2023 – Youngest-ever X Games winner
2023 – Youngest-ever Dew Tour winner
2023 – World Cup debut victory
2026 – Selected to the Olympic national team

In recent World Cup competitions, she has showcased her competitiveness in actual events by successfully landing her signature trick, the “switch back nine,” in which she takes off riding switch and spins two and a half rotations in the air. She is now pushing further, preparing the “switch back ten,” a triple-rotation trick that no female athlete has yet landed in an official competition.

Family

Choi is one of four siblings born to parents who both enjoy snowboarding as a hobby. She originally dreamed of becoming a figure skater, but her father, saying that the true beauty of snowboarding lies in the halfpipe, showed her videos of the discipline. During a free lesson, a coach recognized her potential and encouraged her to pursue a competitive career. The coach vowed to turn her into the “Yuna Kim of snowboarding,” which led her to fully commit to life as a snowboard athlete.

Snowboard Halfpipe Choi Gaon Profile

Name: Choi Gaon
Date of birth: 3 November 2008 (age 18)
Hometown: Yangpyeong County, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea
Nationality: Republic of Korea
Height: 164 cm / Weight: 50 kg / MBTI: INTP
Education: Yangpyeong Elementary School; Sehwa Girls’ Middle School (graduated); Sehwa Girls’ High School (enrolled)
Family: Father, mother, and four siblings
Agency: All That Sports
Debut: 2016
Social media: Instagram