Three Americans Make Olympic Women's Halfpipe Finals

Long live the switch method.

With her partner Myles Garrett and halfpipe legend Shaun White watching from the bottom of the pipe,  Chloe Kim already had the top spot of qualification all but locked up with a score of 90.25. She could have taken it easy on her second run.

She didn’t.

Kim threw a massive backside 720 on her first hit and went huge with a switch method on her second hit. A cab 1080 and frontside 900 followed, and while she didn’t improve upon her first run, she made one thing clear: Chloe Kim was not taking her foot off of the gas.

Teammate Maddie Mastro dropped in for her final run on the outside of the top five looking in. She had a score of 81 on her first run, and plenty of wiggle room to make it into the finals day. But as she stood at the top of the run-in, and visualized her run, she said four words that proved to be true.

“I can do this.”

Mastro kicked off her run with her signature double crippler and went right into a backside 900. A backside 900 mute, frontside 540 Stalefish, backside 540 mute, frontside 720 and Cab 720 led were all executed crisply. She didn’t let up for the entirety of the run, and went massive, as her biggest hit on the halfpipe clocked in at 10’7. It was good enough for an 85. Mastro teared up at the bottom of the run.

In her Olympic debut, Bea Kim also made the finals day. She wrapped up the day in 10th place. Her first run gave her a score of 76.75. Out of the gate, Bea Kim threw a switch backside 900, perhaps the most impressive trick in her entire run. She followed that up with a Cab 720 Melon, a frontside 540 tailgrab, backside 540 Mute, and a frontside 700 Indy.

Maddy Schaffrick’s Olympic journey will come to an end, as she finished in 15th place with a 61.75. After falling on her first run on the final hit while attempting a backside alley-oop 540, Schaffrick needed to lay down a near perfect run. She scrubbed the landing a bit on her final hit and took home a 61.75.

Japan’s Sara Shimizu – who Bea Kim said was the athlete she was most looking forward to watching in an interview with Snowboarder several weeks before the Olympics started – will go into finals day sitting in second place. She fell on her first run but put down a run that included a frontside 900, backside 900, and a Cab 720 on her way to an 86. Korea’s Gaon Choi fell on the final hit of her second run trying to throw a frontside 1080 melon but will undoubtedly be a threat for a podium position in the finals. Spanish rider – and reigning silver medalist – Queralt Ibanez Castellet finished qualifications in seventh place.