Women's Olympic halfpipe final at Beijing 2022: Preview, schedule & stars to watch
Chloe Kim topped qualifying despite crashing out with ONO Mitsuki second and CAI Xuetong third of 12 qualifiers, here's who qualified, a preview, schedule, who, how, and where to watch.
Snowboard
Queen of the halfpipe Chloe Kim dropped in with a solid first run that saw her top qualifying on Wednesday 9 February at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.
Good thing she did too as she crashed out on Run 2 at the Genting Snow Park, but flashed a trademark smile, seemingly unhurt.
Kim's first clean run featured a nice backside air, a frontside 720, a cab 900 then a 720, had a couple of nice grabs - comfortably taking her through to the final with a score of 87.75.
The reigning Olympic halfpipe champ has plenty more in her bag of tricks and expect to see her pull out those back-to-back 1080s in the final.
There wasn't such good news for her USA teammate Maddie Mastro who landed badly on one trick and lost all her momentum in Run 1, then couldn't make it up on Run 2 and failed to qualify for the final in 13th place.
Mastro's been carrying an injury and didn't look right.
But there was no such trouble for Japan's snowboard stars, who had three riders in the top six: Ono Mitsuki was second, Tomita Sena fifth, and her sister Tomita Ruki in sixth just behind her.
All look three looking like podium-contenders ahead of Thursday's final.
And the hosts China, not to be outdone by their Asian neighbours, also had three boarders qualify for the final including experienced vets CAI Xuetong and LIU Jiayu with 24-year-old QIU Leng squeaking into the final in 12th place, just ahead of Mastro.
Read on for a full preview, schedule, and who to watch in tomorrow's snowboard halfpipe Olympic final.
Women's snowboard halfpipe final preview: Get excited
Qualification lit up the Genting Snow Park and the final will be off the scale.
Chloe Kim lived up to her billing as favourite - she's defending Olympic champ, double world-champion and six-time X Games champ, and is on a six-in-a-row winning streak coming into Beijing.
She's having fun in China too: "it's kind of like summer camp," she said of the Olympic Village in Beijing, and looks relaxed.
Watch out for a surprise from her in the final, as she told Olympics.com: "I think I can't tell you what I'll do but I'm hoping to pull the run together I want to do. I'm trying to focus on amplitude as well as variety. I'm doing my best to incorporate all four directions of spins. That's the main thing I've worked on since last Olympics.
"That's how I want to push snowboarding, I want to encourage people to spin all four directions."
But should Kim not land it on the day there are plenty of others ready to lay siege to the top of the podium.
Japan's Ono Mitsuki qualified in second and the 17-year-old is 2020 Youth Olympic Games snowboard halfpipe champion, just as Chloe Kim was in 2016.
Then there's China's Liu and Cai, Liu (29) is the silver medallist from PyeongChang four years ago, 2009 World Champion, and has 23 World Cup podiums and 11 wins in her storied career.
Cai (28) is a double world champ, has three X Games podiums, and just won her seventh halfpipe crystal globe.
And speaking of decorated vets, Spain’s Queralt Castellet is definitely a threat, the 32-year-old is just getting better with time and her fourth-place finish in qualifying says it all.
Just look how she forced Kim into a stomping final run at this year’s Dew Tour, the American only beating her by a single point, to see how competitive Castellet is.
And Japan’s Tomita sisters Sena and Ruki can’t be ruled out either, Ruki claimed a huge first win on Mammoth Mountain then older sister Sena had an X Games win a couple of weeks later.
So many stories, so much potential, this final is not to be missed.
Who qualified for the women's snowboard halfpipe Olympic final Beijing 2022?
Here are the 12 qualifiers for the women's halfpipe final and their best score of two runs, in the final they'll have three.
- Chloe Kim (USA) 87.75
- Ono Mitsuki (JPN) 83.75
- Cai Xuetong (CHN) 83.25
- Queralt Castellet (ESP) 78.75
- Tomita Sena (JPN) 75.75
- Tomita Ruki (JPN) 74.25
- Liu Jiayu (CHN) 72.25
- Berenice Wicki (SUI) 71.50
- Elizabeth Hosking (CAN) 70.50
- Brooke Dhondt (CAN) 70.00
- Leilani Ettel (GER) 68.75
- Qiu Leng (CHN) 66.25
Snowboard women's halfpipe final schedule at Beijing 2022
The final runs take place the next day on Thursday 10 February at:
- Snowboard halfpipe final Run 1: 9:30 local time
- Snowboard halfpipe final Run 2: 9:58 local time
- Snowboard halfpipe final Run 3: 10:25 local time
Where and how to watch snowboarding action at Beijing 2022?
From the Opening Ceremony to athlete action, here's where and how you can watch the Winter Games in your region via the Official Olympic Broadcast Partners.
Keep up with all the action in our Live Blog updates throughout Beijing 2022, here.