Chloe Kim wins again in Aspen

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Second men’s halfpipe podium sweep of the season for Japan, Chloe Kim wins again in Aspen

unnamed 3 - Chloe Kim wins again in Aspen

Japanese snowboarders delivered a phenomenal podium sweep in the men’s halfpipe at the U.S. Grand Prix in Aspen, while the USA’s Chloe Kim claimed another World Cup victory in the same pipe where she won X Games gold last weekend.

Kim took an early lead in the women’s final on Saturday with a first run score of 91.75 thanks to an unbeatable performance featuring a backside 720, a switch method, a cab double cork 1080 stalefish, a frontside 900 tailgrab, and a backside 900 Weddle.

Trailing Kim on 88.75 was her protege Gaon Choi (KOR), with the 16-year-old claiming her second podium of the 2024/25 FIS Snowboard World Cup season and her third career podium out of just four World Cup starts.

Fifteen-year-old Sara Shimizu of Japan finished third on 85.25 points, her second top-three finish of the season after claiming victory in Copper (USA) in December. Only slightly outdone by Choi, Shimizu now has two podiums in four World Cup starts in what is her rookie season on the big tour. 

For Kim, Saturday’s victory is her latest achievement after she won her eighth X Games gold medal, also in Aspen, on 25 January. The 24-year-old also won the most recent halfpipe World Cup, the Laax Open, in January. 

The two-time Olympic Winter Games halfpipe champion said everyone in Saturday’s field performed well despite flat light leading to challenging conditions in the pipe. 

“(The conditions are) kind of hard, really. You have to rely on muscle memory at this point. It’s really hard to see, so things start to feel a bit different, the snow starts to change a bit, so you kind of just have to go with the flow and see what happens,” said Kim. 

“I was kind of bummed the sun got tucked away but the ladies were killing it and I’m glad that I was able to keep up.”

 Kim had already secured victory when she dropped into her third and final run determined to show the home crowd what else she was capable of, but crashed midway through.

 “I was trying to mix it up for you guys at the end there and I couldn’t pull it off. Next time,” she said. 

Fellow U.S. rider Maddie Mastro finished just outside the podium with a fourth place score of 84.00, despite landing what may have been the first-ever switch alley-oop backside rodeo 540 by a woman in competition. 

In the men’s final, the third and final runs were a truly technical display of tricks from the top five finishers, with a podium sweep by Japanese riders following performances that impressed judges and pushed their closest rivals to up their game. 

Japan’s Ruka Hirano ultimately claimed victory ahead of Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games halfpipe champion Ayumu Hirano, who momentarily took the lead with a third run score of 89.50 before Ruka responded with a run which earned him 93.25 points. 

The 22-year-old’s winning run featured a switch backside double 1080 Japan, a backside double 1260 Weddle, followed by a frontside double 1440 indy, a switch frontside triple 1440 truck driver, then a frontside double 1260 indy. 

Ryusei Yamada held the lead through much of the final after a heavy first run in challenging conditions that earned him a 88.25, but the 18-year-old ultimately had to settle for third place and his second career World Cup podium. Yuto Totsuka took fourth place on 87.50. 

Saturday’s Japanese podium sweep is the second of the season after Copper, in which Ayumu claimed the top spot ahead of runner-up Totsuka and third-placed Ruka.

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