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U.S. Winter Olympics star snowboarder Chloe Kim’s hopes of a third gold medal are in serious doubt after suffering a shocking shoulder injury.
Kim said Thursday that she suffered “the dumbest fall” during training, resulting in a dislocated shoulder, threatening her chance to win a third consecutive gold medal at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February.
Kim posted a video of the accident in Laax, Switzerland, earlier this week while practicing for a major Olympic prep there next weekend. Footage shows Kim falling hard into the snow and sliding down the halfpipe.
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Kim took home the gold medal in the women’s halfpipe event at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea. (Reuters)
Kim did not specify which shoulder was injured, but said she was “trying to stay optimistic” despite having little clarity on the timeline for her recovery. The 25-year-old said she has an MRI scheduled for Friday that will reveal the extent of the damage.
“The positive thing is that I have reach, I don’t feel a lot of pain, I just don’t want it to keep coming out, which it has,” he said. “I’m just trying to stay really optimistic. I feel really good about where my snowboarding is right now, so I know that by the time I get the go-ahead and I’m ready to go, I’ll be fine.”
Kim’s absence would 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 took three golds in halfpipe, but they were spread over five games.
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Chloe Kim of the United States celebrates after becoming the youngest woman to win an Olympic gold medal in snowboarding. (Reuters/Jorge Silva)
Kim was the breakout star of the 2018 Olympics, a bubbly teenager who took gold in South Korea, her parents’ home country. Four years ago, in China, he won again, and that victory was marked by his messages about the ups and downs of success and fame.
Despite everything, no one has come close to beating her.
Two years ago, at the Winter X Games, Kim became the first woman to perform a 1,260-degree spin in competition. Before that, she was the first woman to land a double-cork 1080 (two twists and one twist) and the first to land back-to-back 1080s.
She was working to expand that repertoire for the Milan Cortina Games and, if healthy, would be the heavy favorite to win again. This injury calls all that into question. The Olympic qualifying round in women’s halfpipe is on February 11.
The Laax Open is scheduled for next weekend, and even if Kim were to get healthy, there is a chance he could make it to the Olympics without having competed in the finals of a competition this season.
Chloe Kim of the United States reacts to an injury sustained during training before competing in the Women’s Snowboard Halfpipe Finals during the 2025 Toyota Grand Prix of the United States at Copper Mountain on December 19, 2025, in Copper Mountain, Colorado. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Kim qualified for Team USA by winning a contest last year and kept a light schedule in 2025 and 26. She fell during warmups for the finals in Copper Mountain, Colorado, last month and also withdrew after injuring her shoulder. That injury was not believed to be serious.
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Regarding her latest shoulder injury, she said: “I should be fine. I just hope it doesn’t take too long, but I’ll be calm for a while.”
