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Gold claims bronze at Winter Olympics
The first medal to be won by a Jewish competitor at this year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, has gone to American snowboarder Arielle Gold. She earned a bronze medal in the women’s halfpipe contest.
JACK MILNER
The gold medal went to American snowboarder Chloe Kim, 17, whose parents are originally from South Korea. The silver medal went to Liu Jiayu of China.
Gold, 21, who hails from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, almost had her career cut short in 2014 when she dislocated her right shoulder while training for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. She ended up being unable to compete, though her older brother, Taylor, did.
During this year’s competition on Tuesday, Gold performed the 1080, a snowboarding trick involving three rotations, which was attempted by only half of the competitors.
“I think that Steamboat is proud to have so many Olympians here, but to be able to bring home a medal to the town that has given me so much is amazing,” Gold told the Denver Post. “It’s not even the results. It’s just like the whole experience… has been so much more enjoyable for me.”
Gold, a former world champion in the halfpipe event, is currently studying veterinary medicine at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Snowboard halfpipe is a competition in which the competitors start individually from the top of a semi-circular ditch or purpose-built ramp, usually on a downward slope, which is called a “halfpipe”. Competitors perform tricks while going from one side to the other and while in the air above the sides of the pipe.