Racing
League
Rugby
Cricket
Golf
Motorsport
Combat Sports
Football
Netball
Basketball
Other Sports
Sport Nation
📻 IMPORTANT AUCKLAND UPDATE 📻
Dual Winter Olympic champion in doubt after training fall
Eddie Pells • January 9th, 2026 1:22 pm
American Chloe Kim (centre) will undergo further scans after the "silliest fall" in training | Photo: Dan Himbrechts/AAP
American snowboarding star Chloe Kim says she's in doubt for next month's Olympics in Italy after dislocating her shoulder in a training fall.
Kim posted video of the accident in Laax, Switzerland, as she practised for a key Olympic tune-up there next weekend.
She tumbled to the snow and went skittering across the halfpipe.
The 25-year-old will undergo further scans to determine the extent of the damage and for now was "trying to stay optimistic", with the Games getting underway in Milan-Cortina on February 6 (local time).
Chloe Kim's quest for a third gold medal is in doubt after the Olympic great injured her shoulder | Photo: AP
"The positive thing is, I have range, I'm not in that much pain, I just don't want it to keep popping out, which has happened," she said.
"I'm just trying to stay really optimistic. I feel really good about where my snowboarding is at right now, so I know the minute I get cleared and I'm good to go, I should be fine."
Kim's absence would deprive the Winter Games of one of its biggest names and one of its best storylines.
Regularly raising the bar in women's halfpipe with her tricks, she is trying to become the first action-sports athlete to win three straight gold medals.
Fellow American Shaun White took three halfpipe golds, but they were spread out over five games.
Kim was the breakout star of the PyeongChang Olympics in 2018, competing in her parents' home country of South Korea.
Aged 17, she became the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboarding gold medal and then backed that up four years ago in China.
She is heavy favourite for another gold in Livigno is she can recover in time for the Olympic qualifying round in women's halfpipe on February 11 (local time).
Kim qualified for the US team by winning a contest last year and has kept a light schedule since.
She fell during warm-ups for the final in Copper Mountain, Colorado, last month and pulled out after hurting her shoulder then, as well.
That injury was not believed to be serious.
- AP
