Chloe Kim shows no rust, tops halfpipe qualifying

LIVIGNO, Italy — Sure, Chloe Kim was a touch nervous. But who were we kidding?

“I might be better at snowboarding than I am at walking,” she said.

That was apparent Wednesday when Kim, four weeks removed from a schedule-scrambling shoulder injury, soared through a no-fuss, no-drama qualifying round, finishing first to easily earn a spot in the final where she will attempt to become the first snowboarder to win three straight Olympic gold medals.

Two dozen riders got two turns down the Olympic halfpipe on a partly cloudy day in Livigno, with their best score counting and 12 advancing to Thursday night’s final.

Kim dropped in the middle of the pack and immediately separated herself from everyone.

The run included a massive big air leap, some 13 feet over the edge of the halfpipe, punctuated with a showy grab of the board, and a 1080-degree spin while riding backward — a trick she can make even harder by adding an extra flip.

When she was done, she smiled huge for the camera and stuck out her tongue.

“I’ve been doing this for 22 years,” said Kim, who is 25. “Muscle memory is a thing.”

There were other hard tricks going down on the halfpipe — American Maddie Mastro led off both of her runs with double corks — but in many ways, this looked like most contests Kim has been part of over her decade of dominance. She’s just a lot better.

Kim is competing in these Olympics wearing a shoulder brace, the result of an awkward fall four weeks ago during a training run in Switzerland. She returned to the halfpipe only two weeks ago. This marked her first truly meaningful run since March.

“She’s been very well behaved,” Kim said, looking down at her left shoulder. “So I’m grateful for that.”

The men’s qualifying was set for later Wednesday, with all of last year’s podium — Ayumu Hirano, Scotty James and Jan Scherrer — in the lineup and the sport’s GOAT, Shaun White, on hand for NBC.

Kim said she was hoping to link frontside and backside 900s on her second run, but she skidded a bit after the first one and pulled up to save herself for the final, where she will go bigger. A few minutes later, she was in the crowd, sharing hugs with her boyfriend, Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett.

“I’ve landed all the components of my finals run. I just haven’t put them together,” she said. “So I’ll get to do it on the big day.”

Among her biggest challengers will be Americans Mastro and Bea Kim, Japan’s Sara Shimizu and Sena Tomita and South Korea’s, all of whom made the final 12. They are all in the running for medals — and a gold one if Kim is not at her best.

Seasoned as she is in jumping huge in big contests, Kim conceded the injury, which forced her to switch things on the fly in the run-up to Milan Cortina, has changed her perspective on the possibilities of being the sport’s first to win three in a row.

“If you’d asked me before the shoulder injury, I’d maybe have a different answer for you,” she said. “But just because I’m coming back from an injury, obviously I didn’t get nearly the amount of reps I would normally get going into an Olympics. I’m just really proud of myself and proud that I’ve been able to push it as far as I have.”