Chloe Kim, the American snowboarding star who has won the last two Olympic halfpipe gold medals, says she tore her labrum in a training accident last week but expects to be ready for next month’s Winter Games in Italy. In an Instagram post Tuesday, Kim revealed the diagnosis after saying last week that she suffered an injury in training. “The bad news is that I tore my labrum,” she said. “I’m not surprised by that. The good news is that I just tore my labrum.” She said that an MRI on Friday show
In an Instagram post Tuesday, Kim revealed the diagnosis after saying last week that she suffered an injury in training.
“The bad news is that I tore my labrum,” she said. “I’m not surprised by that. The good news is that I just tore my labrum.”
She said that an MRI on Friday showed that her injury was of a less severe variety but will keep her out of this week’s Laax Open in Switzerland, the final World Cup event before the Olympic break. Still, she anticipated being “good to go” for the Olympics, where the halfpipe competition begins Feb. 11 in the town of Livigno.
Kim, 25, is set to be one of the biggest names for the American team in Italy. She was 17 years old in 2018 when she won her first Olympic halfpipe gold in Pyeongchang, South Korea, becoming the youngest woman to win the event. Four years later, she became the first woman to repeat as halfpipe Olympic champion. She’s also a three-time world champion in the halfpipe and an eight-time gold medalist in superpipe — an even larger halfpipe — at the X Games.
If Kim pulls off an unprecedented Olympic three-peat, it’ll be on an injury-shortened schedule in the run-up. She also pulled out of a World Cup event in Colorado last month after a separate training injury.
“Obviously, I’m really disappointed that I can’t snowboard until right before the Olympics, which is going to be hard,” she said. “I haven’t gotten nearly the amount of reps I would’ve liked, but that’s OK.”
Kim’s Instagram post last week included a clip of the fall, in which Kim’s snowboard appears to catch in the snow as she’s going up one side of a halfpipe, sending her tumbling awkwardly face-first into the slope. As she spoke, she seemed glum, unsure of the injury’s extent.
On Tuesday, she was in good spirits as she described her shoulder brace — “which I should be wearing right now,” she noted, “but it’s really uncomfortable.
“I think once I get through this week, I’ll feel a lot better,” she added, “… Having to sit (the Laax Open) out is going to be hard. But I’ll distract myself.”
The video then cuts to a clip of Kim’s boyfriend, Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett, arriving at a train station to visit her. “Distraction secured!!” the caption reads.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Olympics, Global Sports, Women's Olympics
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