Choi Ga-on (Sehwa Girls’ Middle School), who became the second Korean athlete to win a gold medal at the International Ski Federation (FIS) Snowboard World Cup, returned to Korea on the 18th.Ga-on Choi won the women’s halfpipe final at the 2023-2024 FIS Snowboard World Cup held in Copper Mountain, Colorado, USA on the 17th (Korean time) with a score of 92.75.Choi Ga-on is the second Korean athlete to win the FIS World Cup across multiple events, following Lee Sang-ho (Nexen) who won the gold medal in the Alpine Men’s Parallel Giant Slalom at the Snowboard World Cup in December 2021.Choi Ga-on is the first in the halfpipe category at the Snowboard World Cup.Snowboarding halfpipe is a sport in which world-class stars such as Shaun White and Chloe Kim (both of the United States) have won Olympic gold medals.A judge scores aerial performances such as turns and jumps on a semi-cylindrical slope to determine ranking. Born in 2008, Choi Ga-on won the FIS Junior World Championships in March 2022, and in January of this year, he became the youngest ever to win the X Games Superpipe category, an extreme sports competition in the United States.The previous youngest winner in this category was Chloe Kim at 14 years and 9 months old, but Choi Ga-on won the X Games at 14 years and 3 months old.

However, until last season, it was an achievement achieved before debuting on the adult stage such as the World Cup, and this year, the team immediately won the World Cup, which was their first appearance, announcing the emergence of a new powerhouse in this field.At the same time, it brightened the prospects for medals at the 2024 Gangwon Winter Youth Olympics as well as the 2026 Milan Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Olympics.In particular, Chloe Kim did not appear in this World Cup, but Ga-on Choi won by a superior score even though strong players such as Keralt Castelle (Spain), silver medalist at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, participated.Choi Ga-on said, “I prepared new techniques in the off-season and went to Japan and did a lot of air mat training to improve my technique,” ​​and added, “I gained a little more confidence as a result of this competition.”She was the only female athlete in this World Cup to succeed in the switch back nine, which involves floating in the air in the opposite direction of travel and completing two and a half laps.Choi Ga-on said, “I am currently practicing the Switch Back Ten, which is a half-turn more than that,” and explained, 스포츠토토존 “Currently, the Switch Back Ten is a technique that only male players use.”