Chloe Kim to take break from snowboarding competition

Chloe Kim plans to take a full season off from competition before returning for a bid for an unprecedented third consecutive Olympic halfpipe title.

“Just for my mental health,” Kim told Cheddar. “Just want to kind of reset, don’t want to get right back into it after such a fun, but draining year at the same time, knowing that it was an Olympic year. So, I just want to enjoy this moment, take it all in and then get back to it when I’m feeling ready. But as of now the plan is most definitely to go after a third medal.”

Kim, 21, also took a full season off in the last Olympic cycle for her freshman year at Princeton. She returned from a 22-month break between contests and went undefeated, capped by repeating as Olympic champion with a 94-point first run in China.

In 2026, Kim could be one of a quartet bidding to become the first woman to win three Olympic snowboarding gold medals. Austrian Anna Gasser, American Jamie Anderson and Czech Ester Ledecká have two gold medals in big air, slopestyle and parallel giant slalom, respectively.

In Kim’s absence, look for Spain’s Queralt Castellet (Olympic silver medalist) and Japan’s Sena Tomita (X Games winner) to be the women to beat in the halfpipe.

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