Choi Ga-on’s incredible journey from fractured back to broken bones and Olympic gold

By Gawon Bae, CNN

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) — Choi Ga-on walks in very quietly with a faint smile, seemingly camera-shy. But just a month ago, this teenage South Korean snowboarder stunned the world when she made an incredible comeback from injury to complete her final halfpipe run at the Winter Olympics, clinching the gold despite a brutal crash.

Expectations were high coming into Italy; Choi is a prodigy in the sport, having racked up a plethora of titles at the X Games and International Ski Federation (FIS) World Cups in the years leading up to the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.

After cruising into the women’s halfpipe finals, she ambitiously started her first run with a fancy trick, but soon after, her board caught the lip of the slope.

The 17-year-old snowboarder landed upside down as she slipped down the pipe, lying motionless for several minutes as spectators gasped and remained silent and medics rushed to her side.

“Both my knees were not moving, so I thought that was the end of my run,” Choi recently told CNN Sports from the South Korean capital.

But when the stretcher arrived, she somehow got up. People cheered in the moment, but Choi’s coach was worried about her, submitting a DNS (Did Not Start) for her second run.

Unbeknownst to everyone, Choi had suffered three fractures in her left hand in addition to her leg injuries, but she still wanted to push on.

“I cried on the ride up and on the slope,” Choi recalled. “But I didn’t want to regret about this moment all my life, so I withdrew the DNS and decided to compete.”

Her second run though ended with another fall and things started to look bleak for the precocious teenager.

Born to be snowboarder

Choi is the third of four siblings born to snowboard enthusiast parents, the roots of her competitiveness.

“I have an older sister and brother, so anything we did, I didn’t want to lose. I have a competitive spirit thanks to my siblings,” Choi said.

“When we snowboard, I used to follow my brother and whatever trick he did, I had to do it as well – I didn’t want to lose.”

It was the speed as she flew through the winter air over snowy slopes that seven-year-old Choi fell in love with and that was when she decided to pursue the sport as a career.

Her father dropped everything, including his job, to support his daughter’s dream, always accompanying her wherever. She calls him her friend, chef and driver as he carries her snowboard up the mountains, cooks Korean food when abroad, cleans her board and drives 14 hours for her training sessions.

“The fact that he quit his job, which he might have enjoyed, and invested his life to support me is an honor for me,” she said.

Choi and her dad started traveling abroad – to Japan, New Zealand and the US – where she could train at professional snowboard halfpipe facilities due to the lack of infrastructure in South Korea.

The dedication paid off. She won her first gold medal at the FIS Snowboarding Junior World Championship in 2022 and became both Korea’s first X-Games gold winner and the youngest X-Games halfpipe gold medalist at 14 years and two months – breaking Chloe Kim’s record – when she won the SuperPipe in January 2023.

Choi then went on to win her FIS World Cup debut as a 15-year-old at Copper Mountain in December 2023, seemingly destined to make even more history at such an early age.

But her rocket-like ascent came to an abrupt – and almost final – stop at her very next World Cup event. During a training session before the January 2024 event in Laax, Switzerland, Choi hit the lip of the slope while practicing a flat Cab 1080, breaking her back in the subsequent crash.

The precocious talent had to undergo three surgeries and get six metal pins installed into her back.

“It was an unexpected major injury, so mentally it was really tough,” Choi recalled.

“It was so despairing at the time. My dad, my family, we all suffered then. … Right after the injury, I didn’t want to snowboard at all.”

The prodigy considered hanging up her board for good, but a few months later, she felt the hunger for the sport again.

“When I began rehabilitation, I naturally thought that I need to snowboard to be happy again, so I focused on recovering.”

Following a layoff of nearly a year, she returned to Laax as if nothing had happened, finishing third behind Americans Kim and Maddie Mastro. She then finished runner-up to Kim a month later in Aspen, before turning the offseason into a time to push and evolve into her best self.

The result? Choi swept the three World Cup events before the 2026 Olympics, getting wins at Secret Garden, Copper Mountain and Laax to become one of the favorites in Milan Cortina.

Competing with an idol

As with any athlete, the Olympics were Choi’s dream since she started snowboarding, but she says wasn’t nervous at all – rather, that it was an opportunity to live out her dream.

But after the brutal crash on the first run and a second run that wasn’t much better, the dream looked to be more of a nightmare. But with one more chance at glory, Choi went back up to the top of the hill, thinking that the opportunity to be on this stage may only come around in another four years – or never again.

“It was snowing heavily, and it was an evening event. The snowflakes shining under the light were really beautiful that I thought to myself that it’s a stage set up for me,” Choi said, describing the scene from the top of the hill with the eyes of the world looking at her.

“I stood there thinking, ‘I will put my best into the third run, even if I die here.’”

Choi’s determination paid off, producing a near-perfect run with amplitude, speed and technical ability that shot her to the top of the leaderboard and impressed both the world and Choi’s idol: Kim.

Choi had looked up to Kim for a long time, with the two becoming close after running into each other so much at various international competitions.

“Even when she falls in her first and second runs, Chloe unnie (the Korean word for older sister) makes a successful third run. Watching her never giving up until the end, I was really motivated to be like her,” Choi said.

After Kim fell on her final run, failing to become the first snowboarder to three-peat at the Olympics, Choi became the youngest gold medal-winning snowboarder in Games history at 17 years and 101 days old.

After her fall, Kim sought out the new champion and gave her a big embrace. “I’ve known Ga-on since she was little. She won her first Olympic gold medal at the same age as I did. It’s such a full-circle moment,” the American said afterward, per NBC.

“She’s talented, but she works hard. And I think that’s why she’s as amazing as she is today. And so, I couldn’t be more proud for her and I’m so happy for her and I hope that she really just soaks in this amazing moment. It was such an honor to compete with her today,” Kim added.

Mentor and mentee had shared the podium plenty of times, but doing so at the Olympics – the ultimate dream stage – hit Choi differently.

“It was such an honor even just to compete with my role model Chloe unnie at the Olympics, which I had only seen on TV, and then to stand on the podium together and congratulate each other really made me happy,” Choi said.

Fame at home

Fans and media welcomed Choi’s glorious return to Korea with her gold medal – the country’s first in snowboarding.

Surrounded by media, the gold medalist told the press, “It now feels real.”

When Choi’s not snowboarding, though, she is an ordinary high schooler who enjoys going to cafes with her friends and is a big fan of a K-pop band, CORTIS.

“I enjoyed good food with my granny, chatted with my sister and brother, and had a pajama party with my friends,” Choi told CNN Sports of the things she did upon returning to Korea.

But she added that her daily life has changed immensely.

“There’s a cafe I always go to with my friends, and now when I go there, people recognize me and line up to get my autograph. I’m happy, but I’m also shy and sometimes uncomfortable. But I’m enjoying it so far.”

Choi also got to see CORTIS perform at South Korea’s Blue House during a luncheon with President Lee Jae Myung and the First Lady, and eventually, recorded a dancing video with the band – making her second dream come true.

“I always took photos at a photobooth that has a Keonho (a member of CORTIS) frame, and I told my friends that I will meet the group one day. … I met them sooner than I expected, so I was really shy,” the teen said with a gentle blush.

Choi is enjoying the fame, but she knows that snowboarding still comes first.

Her eyes are already on the 2027 world championships where she hopes to win her first world title, something her idol Kim has done three times, and the next Winter Olympics in the French Alps where she will look to defend her gold.

“I want to continue building a good career and become a better snowboarder than I am right now,” Choi said.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.