Kelly Clark won the first Olympic women’s snowboard halfpipe gold medal at Salt Lake City 2002.
Clark was 18 when she won the inaugural women’s Olympic halfpipe competition at the 2002 Winter Games. Her victory helped establish halfpipe as one of snowboarding’s central Olympic disciplines, alongside giant slalom and parallel events.
She later became the first American woman to compete at five Winter Olympics in snowboarding. Clark won additional Olympic medals in halfpipe at Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014, but neither was gold. Her 2002 title is sometimes mixed up with Hannah Teter’s 2006 victory or Torah Bright’s 2010 victory; both came in later editions of the event.