South Korean snowboard star Choi Ga-on (Sehwa Girls' High School) has been named a medal contender for the women's snowboard halfpipe at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics by Forbes, the American business magazine.
Forbes introduced eight notable athletes likely to reach the podium in the Olympic snowboard halfpipe event on Friday (local time), placing Choi's name at the top of the list.
Born in 2008 and set to make her Olympic debut, Choi currently leads the women's halfpipe rankings with three victories in the 2025-2026 International Ski Federation (FIS) Snowboard World Cup season. She is also considered a leading candidate to deliver Korea's first-ever Olympic gold medal in skiing or snowboarding.
Forbes highlighted Choi's achievements, including her 2023 X Games pipe victory at age 14 years and 2 months—the youngest winner in the event's history—and her three World Cup wins this season. The magazine assessed that she "will be the strongest competitor to Chloe Kim (United States), who is aiming for a historic third consecutive Olympic title in Livigno."
Forbes added, "If Choi wins gold, she will break the record as the youngest Olympic snowboard gold medalist."
Chloe Kim, known as the "Snowboard Queen," was also among the eight athletes named. Having won back-to-back women's halfpipe gold medals at the 2018 PyeongChang and 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Kim is seeking to become the first snowboarder to achieve three consecutive Olympic titles in a single event.
Besides these two athletes, the list included Campbell Melville Ives (New Zealand) and Tomita Sena (Japan).
For the men's event, Forbes selected Beijing Winter Olympics gold medalist Hirano Ayumu (Japan), silver medalist Scotty James (Australia), current World Cup men's rankings leader Totsuka Yuto, and Hirano Ruka (Japan), who has consistently posted top results on the World Cup circuit.