- Snowboarding superstar Chloe Kim won a gold medal on the halfpipe at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
- Team China freestyle skier Eileen Gu was in the crowd watching and hugged Kim after the victory.
- Gu later congratulated Kim on her Instagram story, calling her "a friend, inspo, and big sister."
Chloe Kim enjoyed an extra-golden celebration after her women's halfpipe victory.
The American snowboarding superstar had the gold medal locked up after earning a 94 from the judges on her first run of Thursday's final. And after the win became official two runs later, Kim rushed over to the crowd to celebrate with someone who has that gold-medal feeling fresh in her mind: Eileen Gu.
The 18-year-old Team China superstar — who won the women's freestyle skiing big air event earlier in the week — reached out from the crowd and gave Kim a massive congratulatory hug.
Though Gu is competing on behalf of China, she was born and raised in San Francisco and regularly skied in Lake Tahoe as a kid. Kim, meanwhile, is a native of Southern California who grew up riding at Mammoth Mountain roughly 150 miles South.
Their paths certainly crossed in the early years of their illustrious careers on the slopes as the two are close friends.
After Kim's victory, Gu took to Instagram and posted a story to honor the massive accomplishment. She wrote that she's "so proud to have [Kim] as a friend, inspo, and big sister all in one."
Now that Kim's Olympic slate is clear, she'll have plenty of time to take in other events at the games. And considering Gu has both the women's slopestyle and women's halfpipe competitions remaining on her docket, it seems reasonably likely the snowboarding sensation will return the favor and watch Gu perform.
Gu will head back to the slopes Sunday for slopestyle qualifications, with the event final scheduled for the following day. She'll finish out her schedule with halfpipe qualifiers and finals on February 17th and 18th, respectively.