Chloe Kim rediscovers love for Olympics. Will an injury derail quest for a 3rd straight gold medal?

COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. (AP) — Chloe Kim's third run to the Olympics started with the usual questions: How will she handle the pressure? Can she enjoy the journey? How does being famous elevate or diminish the experience? And, of course, will she win her third straight gold medal?

Now, comes one that nobody saw coming: Will America's best snowboarder, one of the major attractions of next month's Milan Cortina Games, even make it to the halfpipe? If she does, will she be anywhere near 100%?

A shoulder injury during training has turned the buildup to the Olympics into a scramble for the 25-year-old Kim, whose catalog of tricks outclasses everything else in this high-risk, high-reward sport.

“Obviously, I’m really disappointed that I can’t snowboard until right before the Olympics, which is going to be hard," Kim said in a recent update on Jan. 13, four weeks before the start of the women's halfpipe contest. "I haven’t gotten nearly the amount of reps that I would have liked, but that’s OK.”

The question of Kim's health will hover over the one of the marquee contests of the Olymipcs and over the result itself.

If she wins, it will mark another stunning accomplishment for the California kid who took over the halfpipe 10 years ago — a smiling 15-year old who loved the mall, her dog Reese and the first day of any month because that’s when her mom paid out her allowance.

If she doesn't — and someone like Gaon Choi of Korea or Sena Tomita of Japan wins — well, that might be chalked up to the best snowboarder not being at full strength.

“To some level, I think (the shoulder) is something that will be in her mind if she does decide to compete,” said Shaun White, the three-time gold medalist who dealt with big injuries in the lead-up to his last two Games. “But, also, she's in a league of her own trick-wise.”

For everything she has accomplished — the record eight Winter X Games golds, the three world championship titles and the tricks she does that nobody else even attempts — the Olympic gold medal is the benchmark in this sport. For Kim, gearing up to take her game up another notch every four years makes the mental gymnastics almost as difficult as the physical ones.

It's a reality that a few years ago forced her to restart her search for joy in a sport that, over time, has turned into something different than fun and games.

“When you have the level of fame that she has reached, it gets to be a lot more like a job,” said her longtime coach, Rick Bower. “Some of that love you had when you were younger gets lost a little bit. One of the biggest things she’s worked on over the last few years is just finding that spark of why she actually does this.”

Scattered among her dozens of social-media posts that show her peddling products, heading to the gym, talking about her driving acumen and making matcha was a revealing take on why she keeps going out there.

“I feel like I love the adrenaline and the pressure I feel when I am snowboarding,” she said. “I find it very rewarding, too. There’s nothing that can compete with the feeling of accomplishing something you once thought was impossible, and pushing yourself and being able to see the result of all your hard work.”

Her career is full of those moments.

Last January, Kim became the first woman to land a double-cork 1080 in a competition (that’s two head-over-heels flips while spinning 360 degrees).

She is approaching the 10th anniversary of the date when she became the first woman to do back-to-back 1080s, three spins in one jump above the pipe.

In 2024, during a victory lap at the Winter X Games, she added a half spin to her 1080 and became the first woman to pull off a 1260.

She had tried, and failed, to pull off a 1260 at the 2022 Olympics in China. In a world that only Kim and a few others can understand, that had no impact on her winning the gold medal — she did that easily with her second-best run — but made all the difference in how she viewed the day.

“It’s unfair to be expected to be perfect,” she said that day, “and I’m not perfect in every way.”

More than the gold medal, Kim said, she found her joy in the quest for progression, the favorite word of any great snowboarder. Nobody has progressed women’s snowboarding more than she has over the past decade.

“You’re going to see someone designing a whole new run that’s never been done before," said Kelly Clark, the 2002 Olympic gold medalist who befriended Kim when she was starting out. "There’s a creativity and individual expression that makes it so cool.”

Creativity and progression come with risks. The best, after all, are supposed to win. By not playing it safe, Kim puts that in jeopardy. Clark, who has Olympic gold and two bronze, is among the rare few who can relate to what the current Olympic champion is feeling.

“I didn’t find it very sustainable when you did things for external purposes,” she said. “If you did things just because it was an Olympic year, I usually found that involved a lot more pressure."

If these musings sound familiar — about Kim struggling with fame, struggling to rekindle her love of snowboarding, struggling with it all — they are. In 2018, about a month after winning her first gold, she conceded fame was different from what she imagined.

It included everything from paparazzi following her, to fans watching her eat in restaurants to an ugly spate of anti-Asian trolling that has been a steady, disturbing through-line over the career of a California native whose parents are Korean.

Heading into 2022, Kim opened up about her own mental-health challenges, especially in the furor of the pandemic. The disease originated in China, which led to a backlash against people of Asian heritage.

“I experience hate on a daily basis,” Kim wrote in a 2021 essay published on ESPN.

Her feelings heading into these Olympics might have been summed up best in one of her rare interviews: “I just want to go back to loving it again,” she told Harper’s Bazaar last summer.

Now, the question is: Does she have to win to love it? Also, what will it take to win, especially with the calculus changed because of the injury?

Bower believes Choi and Tomita have tricks that will prompt Kim to bring more than her “B” game to win.

As Italy approaches, that's what pressure feels like for an adrenaline junkie who likes to create art on the mountain.

“She goes to an event, she’s expected to win,” Bower said. “That’s a very overwhelming proposition for anybody. But she’s done a very good job of focusing on what makes her excited to strap on a snowboard.”

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

FILE - Gold medal winner Chloe Kim, of the United States, celebrates during the venue ceremony for the women's halfpipe at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Feb. 10, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

FILE - Chloe Kim, of the United States, runs the course during the women's halfpipe qualifying at Phoenix Snow Park at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Feb. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

FILE- United States' Chloe Kim reacts during the women's halfpipe finals at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Feb. 10, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

FILE - Chloe Kim, of the United States, jumps during the women's halfpipe finals at Phoenix Snow Park at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, on Feb. 13, 2018. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

FILE - Women's halfpipe gold medalist Chloe Kim, of the United States, poses during the medals ceremony at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, on Feb. 13, 2018. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Naomi Osaka withdrew from the Australian Open before her scheduled third-round match against Australian qualifier Maddison Inglis on Saturday, ending a campaign noted strikingly for fashion and friction.

The two-time Australian Open champion announced it on social media without divulging her injury, posting on Instagram that she had to withdraw “to address something my body needs attention for after my last match.”

“I was so excited to keep going and this run meant the most to me, so having to stop here breaks my heart," Osaka posted, “but I can't risk doing any further damage so I can get back on the court.”

In comments later published by the tournament, Osaka said she had a left abdominal issue.

“It’s an injury I’ve had a couple of times before, and I thought I could push through it,” she said. “I played my last match with some pain, and I thought maybe if I gave myself a break before my match today, I would be able to handle it. But I warmed up, and it got a lot worse.”

The 28-year-old four-time major winner said she'd need more tests before deciding on long-term treatment.

“Obviously I think coming back from pregnancy, my body changed quite a lot,” she said. “So this is something I have to be really cautious of."

Osaka had a daughter, Shai, in July 2023 during a 15-month break from the tour. She returned to competition in 2024 and made it back to the semifinals of a major for the first time at last year's U.S. Open.

“I’m just grateful to be otherwise very healthy," she said, "and I hope that I’m able to play some good tennis for the rest of the year.”

Osaka's grand entrance to the tournament earlier this week went viral, when she walked onto the court for her first-round match wearing a wide-brim hat, a veil and holding a white parasol — a design she said her clothing sponsor, Nike, let her create.

In the second round, Osaka fended off Sorana Cirstea in a tense 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 win at Margaret Court Arena that ended acrimoniously.

The pair barely exchanged a handshake over the net, with Cirstea glancing in Osaka’s direction briefly and then turning her head away.

As they walked toward the umpire’s chair, Osaka asked, “What was that for?”

Cirstea responded directly to the four-time Grand Slam champion, upset with Osaka’s efforts to pump herself up at stages during the match.

“Apparently a lot of ‘C’mons’ that she was angry about,” Osaka said, “but whatever. I think this was her last Australian Open so, OK, sorry she was mad about it.”

Osaka won the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021. She won two other Grand Slam titles at the U.S. Open, where she beat Serena Williams in the 2018 final and won again in 2020.

She was seeded 16th for this tournament and was set to play Inglis, ranked No. 168, in a night match on Rod Laver Arena.

Inglis will next face No. 2-ranked Iga Świątek, who had a 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 win later Saturday over No. 31 Anna Kalinskaya.

In an on-court interview following the match, Swiatek was told of Osaka's withdrawal.

“Hopefully Naomi is well. She was playing great,” said Swiatek, who is in Australia bidding to complete a career Grand Slam. “It’s exciting to be in a fourth round again.”

To the crowd, she said: “Hopefully you’re not going to be so harsh for me if I’m playing an Australian!”

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Sorana Cirstea, left, of Romania and Naomi Osaka of Japan talk at the net following their second round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

FILE - Naomi Osaka of Japan walks onto Rod Laver Arena for her first round match against Antonia Ruzic of Croatia at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake, File)

Naomi Osaka of Japan reacts after defeating Sorana Cirstea of Romania in their second round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)