Chloe Kim goes for unprecedented snowboard halfpipe Olympic treble
The latest unexpected turn came just a month before the Games, when the 25-year-old American suffered a torn labrum in one shoulder in a fall in training.
"I haven't gotten nearly the amount of reps that I would have liked, but that's OK," Kim said in announcing one week later that she was "good to go" for the Olympics.
"It's funny I've been doing this for so long, and every season I've met different challenges," said Kim, who was making waves in the sport long before she captured her first Olympic gold, at 17, at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
She became the first woman to win two gold medals in halfpipe when she triumphed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
She owns three halfpipe world titles and eight Winter X Games golds, building an imposing portfolio of tricks that has expanded the possibilities of her sport.
But Kim, who was just 13 years old when she won her first X Games medal, a silver in 2014, has also found herself disillusioned with the realities of fame, temporarily stepping away from competition after both of her Olympic victories.
The California-born daughter of South Korean parents, she's been hailed as an All-American star and been the target of online racist abuse that escalated as anti-Asian hate spiraled in the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Kim, who secured her Milan Olympic berth with a World Championship victory last March, told Olympics.com that she had rediscovered her love for the sport.
"I kind of realized that I love learning tricks, and I love doing different things," she said.
"I just started spinning backside again for the first time in 15 years. And then, like, the minute that happened, a whole new world just opened up for me. And I just started to think what run would feel fun, what run is challenging, what run is exciting for me."
With the help of therapy she has emerged from what she called an unhappy "teenage to adult transition" with new confidence.
Off the snow she co-founded -- with fellow sports stars Alex Morgan, Sue Bird and Simone Manuel -- Togethxr, a media and commerce platform focused on amplifying the stories of women athletes.
A documentary film that will include her 2026 Olympic campaign is in the works.
She has built a one million-strong following on Instagram, and video of her sharing an NFL sideline kiss with boyfriend Myles Garrett, a star pass rusher with the Cleveland Browns, was a sensation on the team's social media feeds.
"I'm just, like, letting myself be free," she told Olympics.com. "And it's been the best experience I've had in a long time."