Chloe Kim will ride Olympic halfpipe with a shoulder brace, says she's anxious but also confident

LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — Chloe Kim's first truly meaningful ride through a halfpipe in almost 11 months will come at no place other than the Olympics.

That feels daunting, even for one of the best snowboarders in the world, whose leadup to the Games took a detour when she injured her shoulder during a training run in Switzerland the second week of January.

“I have so much anxiety,” Kim said Monday, two days before she begins her quest to win a third straight gold medal. “But thankfully I have matcha (tea) and there's good vibes here and my family's here, so we'll be good.”

The 25-year-old American said she returned to the halfpipe about two weeks ago and is wearing a brace on her left shoulder that, “in a funny way ... made my riding better.”

Her coach, Rick Bower, told The Associated Press that practices have been going well since Kim returned to the snow.

“Clearly, it's not an ideal situation, but all things considered, the work she's put in over the last 15 years, she's in a place where she can deal with it,” he said. “Though it's not what we'd like, the riding is at the point to where she can still compete for gold.”

Kim spoke of the mental reboot she was able to enjoy, in large part by winning a contest in Aspen in January 2025 that put her on the Olympic team more than a year before the Games. She won world championships two months after that, then took time off.

Her plan was to ease into the Olympic season — lots of practice, followed by one competition in Copper Mountain, Colo., in December, then another in Laax, Switzerland, in January.

She made it through the low-pressure qualifying round at Copper Mountain, but fell and injured her shoulder while getting ready for the final. She rebounded from that, but suffered the more serious injury almost exactly a month before she jumps into the halfpipe in Italy.

It leaves the one run in Copper Mountain as the only scored run Kim has made since last March. She said often muscle memory overcomes the nerves once she drops in.

“I feel confident,” Kim said. “I feel really good about how I'm feeling physically and mentally, and that's most important right now.”

When healthy, Kim would be the clear favorite even in a sport that is advancing quickly. Korea's 17-year-old Gaon Choi has been ramping up the difficulty and could pose the greatest threat to Kim's three-peat.

But Kim herself has always led the way on the halfpipe. She said her big run this week is one she's never done. It will be a tougher version of what she won with in Beijing — tricks involving riding backward and forward and spinning in both directions off those approaches.

“If I'm able to pull that off, regardless of where I place, I'll be really content with that,” Kim said.

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

United States' Chloe Kim speaks during a press conference at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

United State's Chloe Kim practices as a photographer watches during a snowboard halfpipe training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

United States' Chloe Kim speaks during a press conference at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The Artemis II astronauts have captured our blue planet’s brilliant beauty as they zoom ever closer to the moon.

NASA released the crew’s first downlinked images Friday, 1 1/2 days into the first astronaut moonshot in more than half a century.

The first photo taken by commander Reid Wiseman shows a curved slice of Earth in one of the capsule’s windows. The second shows the entire globe with the oceans topped by swirling white tendrils of clouds. A green aurora even glows, according to NASA.

“It’s great to think that with the exception of our four friends, all of us are represented in this image," said NASA's Lakiesha Hawkins, an exploration systems leader. She added the mission was going well.

As of late Friday afternoon, Wiseman and his crew were more than 110,000 miles (180,000 kilometers) from Earth and were quickly gaining on the moon with another 150,000 miles (240,000 kilometers) to go. They should reach their destination on Monday.

The three Americans and one Canadian will swing around the moon in their Orion capsule, hang a U-turn and then head straight back home without stopping. They fired Orion's main engine Thursday night that set them on their course.

After Mission Control shifted the position of their capsule, the entire Earth complete with northern lights filled their windows.

“It was the most spectacular moment, and it paused all four of us in our tracks,” Wiseman said in a TV interview.

They're the first lunar travelers since Apollo 17 in 1972.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

NASA's Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

This image taken from video provided by NASA shows the Artemis II crew, from left, Canadien astronaut and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, mission specialist Christina Koch and pilot Victor Glover as they appear on a video conference from the moon's orbit Thursday, April 2, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This image provided by NASA shows a downlink image of Earth taken by NASA’s Artemis II astronaut commander Reid Wiseman inside the Orion capsule on Friday, April 3, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This image provided by NASA shows a view of Earth taken by NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman from of the Orion spacecraft's window after completing the translunar injection burn on April 2, 2026. (NASA via AP)