The Women’s Halfpipe Snowboard title looks as if it’s Chloe Kim’s to lose. The USA sensation dominated the qualifying runs to make the final and she goes as 1/4 odds on favourite at Ladbrokes* (betting odds taken on February 12th, 2018 at 8:18 pm). She was the only athlete in the entire qualifiers who managed to produce a score over 90 in a run during the qualifiers and she actually managed it in both of her runs.
This is the big moment that the 17 year old has been waiting for. She was too young four years ago to get to Sochi, but she went out and won the silver in the superpipe in the 2014 Winter X Games, with only Kelly Clark ahead of her. Since then she has won four golds at the Winter X Games including this year. She really is the next big thing in the sport and she was always going to be in the medal frame at the Olympics and it appears that she has has the title in her hands.
Will any nerves come into play in the final at the 2018 Olympics for her? Well probably not. At the 2017 Winter Youth games she came up with gold in both the halfpipe and the Slopestyle, so she will likely handle this well enough. She seems to be content, settled and has been chatting about ice cream in between qualifying runs on Twitter. forward to her ice cream.
Kim’s Challengers
So are there any serious challengers coming in for her from the other eleven finalists? Two other Americans have made it to the final, with Maddie Mastro putting in the fourth best run of the qualifies, while Kelly Clark just scraped into the top twelve. Mastro did win the bronze at the superope in the 2018 X Games so is a nice option to join Kim on the podium.
China’s Liu Jiayu was the second best qualifier to reach the finals. She has experience and actually competed in the 2010 Winter Olympics coming forth in the halfpipe. “Birdie” took gold at the Winter Asian Games last year while Japan’s Haruna Matsumoto was third best in the qualifying and unlike Jiayu, she hasn’t managed a World Cup victory before but she did get second in the 2017 World Championship.
Spain’s Queralt Castellet took gold in the halfpipe back in January in Snowmass, USA on the World Cup Tour, her third World Cup victory, however, she hasn’t been in the top ten in any of her three previous Olympic appearances.
Women’s Halfpipe Predcitions
In summary, unless everyone else was just really holding back in their qualification runs, no-one is likely to touch the quality of Kim, so she’s worth backing to get the win on the board. Making up the top there is probably going to be Jiayu because of her big-tournament experience, with America’s Mastro getting in on the picture as well.
Women’s Halfpipe Snowboarding Winner Odds*
Chloe Kim 1/4, Maddie Mastro 10/1, Jiayu Liu 10/1, Haruna Matsumoto 12/1, Queralt Castellet 10/1, Kelly Clark 20/1, Xuetong Cai 25/1, bar 33/1
