America Strikes Gold in the Halfpipe

SOUTH KOREA-It’s the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea and on February 11, 2018, the women’s halfpipe for snowboarding started. The United States of America had four athletes competing for gold: three-time medalist Kelly Clark, Arielle Gold, Maddie Mastro, and seventeen-year old Chloe Kim. This event started off with a qualifying round, and each athlete had three attempts to make a qualifying score. The top twelve athletes make it to the final round, and all four of our athletes made it. Chloe Kim holds the first place spot with a score of 95.50.

On the next day, in the final round, Chloe Kim made a statement with a score that was close to 100, and no one would match that score. Arielle Gold didn’t win the gold medal, but she captured the bronze with a score of 85.75. On the same day, the men’s qualifying round was going on. There are also four athletes that competed for gold: gold medal-favorite Shaun White, Ben Ferguson, Chase Josey, and Jake Pates. All four athletes qualified to the final round. The next day, on February 13, Shaun White started off strong with a score of 93.35, but Ayumu Hirano came back with a better score on the second run. On the final run, Ayumu Hirano failed to score better than his previous run, and Shaun White stormed back into the lead with a score of 97.75.