Chloe Kim won her first Olympic gold medal in snowboarding at the Pyeongchang Games on Tuesday by blowing away her opponents with a near-perfect score in the women's halfpipe.
Kim sealed the win when China's Liu Jiayu failed to top the American's first score of 93.75 points on her third run at Phoenix Snow Park, and sent the fans into raptures when she exploded into a near-flawless 98.25-point run to widen her margin of victory.
（Getty)
"It hasn't really sunk in yet. I'm on such a high, an adrenaline rush. I don't really know what just happened," said Kim, who is the daughter of Korean parents and has family in the country hosting the games.
"I need to go home and process everything and I'll probably bawl my eyes out some more, but this has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl, so just to be here and to be able to do it when it mattered feels amazing."
In her Olympic debut, the 17-year-old American was at another level from all other boarders, many of whom opted for safe runs, putting down a sequence of tricks which none could match before landing her signature back-to-back 1080s on her victory lap.
"I knew that I wasn't going to feel as satisfied if I didn't land that. Even if it was a gold medal I didn't want to go home knowing that I could have done better, so when I landed I was so excited. I feel so much more satisfied, and I'm so much more proud," she said of her 1080 combo.
Liu denied the Americans a podium sweep with her 89.75-point second run. Arielle Gold took bronze with a score of 85.75.
(Getty)
For Japan, 24-year-old Haruna Matsumoto fell on her second run when attempting a 1080 and finished sixth out of 12 finalists with 70.00 points. Eighteen-year-old Sena Tomita was eighth.
"I've come all the way here, so I just had to do what I had to do. A sixth-place finish is not bad considering that it's my first Olympics. I've been aiming (for the Olympics) for about 14 years," Matsumoto said.
More on the Winter Olympics:
Olympics: Italy's Fontana breaks gold drought in short track 500
Olympics: "Angry Cat" Kodaira poised to pounce in 1,000 gold medal bid
Olympics: Unlike Sochi, Pyeongchang all about smiles for Takanashi
Olympics: White drops halfpipe marker as 3 Japanese join him in final
Olympics: Japanese short track skater fails doping test, 1st case in Pyeongchang
Olympics: Anderson defends snowboard slopestyle gold, Fujimori 9th
