American Chloe Kim, 21, secures history with consecutive Olympic golds in snowboard halfpipe event

Chloe Kim is the first woman to win two Olympic snowboard gold medals in the halfpipe. The lone American to make Thursday's final, Kim, 21, won the event with her first-run score of 94, which was nearly four points higher than the rest of the field. Spain's Queralt Castellet, a five-time Olympian, captured her first medal, a silver, and Sena Tomita of Japan finished with the bronze.

I was dealing with all sorts of emotions [before the contest], but I reminded myself I just have to land one run, and I was so happy to do that," Kim told NBC after the event.

Despite going into this contest open-eyed about the stress of Olympic competition, Kim couldn't block out the pressure to repeat her performance from Pyeongchang. She had an uncharacteristic fall on her first run in qualifiers, and later admitted she was nervous before the contest began. Once she calmed her nerves, Kim landed the best run of the day to qualify atop the field and earn the privilege of dropping last in finals.

On Thursday, after what Kim called, «the worst practice of my life,» she took a deep breath, dropped into the pipe and outclassed her competitors with her first run. She went consistently higher above the pipe, landed technical tricks like a switch 900 and a backside 540 and bookmarked her opening run with 1080s.

At the bottom of the pipe, Kim slid to a stop, dropped to her knees and let out a messy explosion of emotions. «Oh my God,» she said, laughing, crying and breathing hard. When her score — a seemingly unbeatable 94 — appeared on the board, she stood up and walked through the media area hugging everyone she knew.

«I was dealing with all sorts of emotions and self-doubt,» Kim said Thursday.

Back at the top of the pipe, the TV cameras caught