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Chloe Kim scores second Olympic gold medal

Olympic gold medalist Chloe Kim repeated the feat in Beijing by scoring an unbeatable 94 points on the first of three runs Wednesday.

The elation she felt immediately became evident as she hugged anyone she knew in her sights, including United States coach Ricky Bower.

“I just started bawling,” she said to ESPN. “I gotta get these tears out.”

She became the first woman in the history of the halfpipe which began in 1998 to repeat as champion.

Kim uttered that she had the worse practice session ever Wednesday. Somehow she overcame it. The high score after the first run freed her up from all the pressure and she went for the gusto on runs two and three, attempting the difficult 1260. You can see her winning run here.

She fell both times, but it didn’t matter as her lead proved insurmountable. She beat silver medalist Queralt Castellet pf Spain by four points and bronze medalist Sena Tomita of Japan by eight points, reported USA Today.

“I’m really proud of myself for going out there and trying it,” Kim said.

If she had landed the jump, she would have been the first woman in the halfpipe ever to accomplish the 1260.

“She’s riding at a different level than the rest of the field,” Bower said. “She’s doing tricks that she wants to do. … She decided after taking some time that she wanted to showcase the riding that she was proud of, and that’s what she did out here. Mastery of the sport, spinning all four ways and landing well and going big.”

Chloe Kim experiences the thrill of victory, winning her second gold medal. AsAmNews photo

Kim has been honest about how her first gold medal took a toll on her. She even threw her gold medal in the trash, but would later retrieve it.

“It’s unfair to be expected to be perfect, and I’m not perfect in any way. I think after my last Olympics, I put that pressure on myself to be perfect all the time,” she said to USA Today. “I would be really sad and depressed all the time when I was home, and I was hurting the people I love the most by doing that.”

At just 21, she could return for another Olympics, but according to NPR, she’s not ready to commit just yet.

“There’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears and hard work sacrifice from families,” she said. “And it’s not easy. I fall on my butt and I’m sore for three days.

“The biggest challenge for me now is just to be as open as possible, because I hope that maybe one day, a little girl can hear my story and be inspired to keep going, to never give up, to learn that it’s OK to have a bad day, but you can move on if you come out in a better place at the end of it all.”

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