MILAN — On a morning when a ray of sun squeezed through the clouds above the Italian Alps as if to provide her a spotlight, Chloe Kim once reminded us that the biggest difference between her and those of us who have never dared to fly is not in the enormous physical gap but in our wildest dreams.

In the most anticipated qualifying round in Olympic snowboarding history, Kim, a month after tearing the labrum in her left shoulder, less than two weeks after she was able to get back on a board, yet again delivered a gravity and imagination-defying performance few could even conceive of.

Kim, 25, posted the top qualifying score in the Milano Cortina Olympic Games halfpipe at the Livigno Snow Park Wednesday morning, proving that even injured she remains head — and shoulders — above the world’s best snowboarders and keeping her on track to become the first person to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals in the halfpipe or any other snowboard event in Thursday night’s final.

“I’m really happy with who I’ve become,” Kim said. “Going into these Games, I felt really at ease and calm. I know what I’m here to do.

“I’m just happy to be here because for a little bit, a couple of months ago, it wasn’t looking too certain. So, I’m stoked that I was able to make it out and make it through qualifiers.”

Kim scored a qualifying leading 90.25 on her first run, a mark that held up through the second round where Japan’s Sara Shimizu posted the morning’s second-best score, 87.50.

Kim will be joined by U.S. teammates Maddie Mastro, third in the qualifying at 86.00, and Bea Kim, 10th at 76.75, in the final, where she hinted at delivering even more mind-bending feats.

“I do have some things on my agenda,” Chloe Kim said. “I can’t tell you because I’ll ruin the fun, but I’m really excited, and I’m really hoping I can pull it off tomorrow night.”

Kim was just 17 when she won her first Olympic gold medal at the 2018 Games in South Korea, a victory that launched her as a global star who transcended her sport. Those Olympics also proved to be a turning point for an 11-year-old student at Montemalaga Elementary School in Palos Verdes Estates who had traveled to South Korea with her family to watch the Games.

“Going to the games in 2018 was a pretty pivotal moment,” Bea Kim, now 19, said, recalling the trip where she met both Chloe Kim and Mastro. “They were always both very kind to me and inspired me to get into this sport. So now, to be able to sit between them and be on the same team and call them my friends, it just means the world.”

The Kims share more than just their last name.

Their journeys to the Olympics are more than anything immigrant stories, the odysseys of two families of dreamers who settled in the South Bay, Chloe Kim’s family in Torrance, Bea’s in the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

In a Games where American athletes defending free speech and protesters in the U.S. have suffered the wrath of President Trump and his supporters on social media, neither Kim shied away from questions about how they felt representing Team USA.

One of Bea Kim’s favorite books is “A Little Life” by Hanya Yanagihara. In it Yanagihara writes, “None of them really wanted to listen to someone else’s story anyway; they only wanted to tell their own.”

So it wasn’t surprising that she jumped at the chance to answer the question.

“I’ll go after it, guys, let me go,” Bea Kim said.

“Well there. I think there are a lot of different opinions in the U.S. right now. Obviously, we’re very divided. I personally am very proud to represent the United States. That being said, I think diversity is what makes us a very strong country and what makes us so special. I don’t think there’s anywhere else in the world where you can really have the opportunity to do whatever you want. I mean, I think the four of us sitting here today are an example of that,” she continued, referring to Chloe Kim, Mastro and Maddy Schaffrick, another U.S. teammate. “We all came from very different backgrounds. And, you know, Chloe’s parents immigrated here, my grandparents immigrated to the States, and we all got to just chase our dreams and be here. And I think that’s what’s also so special about the Olympics, is they’re bringing a bunch of different people together from different countries, and we just get to be united through sport and celebrate sport, celebrate the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect.

“Yeah, I agree with what Bea,” Chloe Kim said. “I’m proud to represent Team USA. I’m also saddened with what’s happening at home. It’s really tough, and I feel like we can’t turn a blind eye to that, but at the same time, I represent a country that has the same values as mine, of kindness and compassion, and we come together in times of injustice.

“Yeah, I agree with all of that. Obviously, my parents being immigrants, this one definitely has hit pretty close to home, and I think in moments like these, it is really important for us to unite and kind of stand up for one another, for all that’s going on. And I think that I’m really proud to represent the United States. It’s the U.S. that has given my family and I so much opportunity, but I also think that we are allowed to voice our opinions on what’s going on, and I think that we need to lead with love and compassion, and I would love to see some more of that.”

Like Chloe Kim, Bea Kim first found snowboard success during weekend trips to Mammoth.

Once or twice a year Kim’s family traveled to Mammoth for a weekend of snowboarding. When Bea was 9, one of those weekends coincided with the JLA Banked Slalom competition.

She entered on a lark and ended up finishing third.

She eventually switched her focus from racing to the halfpipe, her dad, Drew, making the six-hour drive to Mammoth every other weekend, leaving on Friday, coming back Sunday night. Then shortly after meeting Chloe Kim and Mastro at the Olympics, Bea joined the Mammoth Mountain Snowboard Team, a pipeline to Team USA.

A year after meeting her future U.S. teammates in PyeongChang, Bea Kim won the 2019 U.S. junior title. She picked up a silver medal at the 2022 World Junior Championships and then in just her rookie World Cup season, reached her first podium on the circuit with a second-place finish in Laax, Switzerland, during the 2023-24 season and then went on to finish third in the World Cup halfpipe season final standings.

But she missed most of last season with a shoulder injury that required surgery. A year ago, she was focused on her rehabilitation and her work with the climate advocacy organization Protect Our Winters. Kim has spoken at the United Nations about climate change and she plans to attend Columbia University next fall and study climate and sustainability.

She marked her return to the World Cup circuit with a third-place finish at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix in Copper Mountain, Colo., in December, placing her back onto the medal contender list for Milano Cortina.

“Yeah, that was very unexpected,” Bea Kim said. “I was just planning to go out in Copper and put a run down. I had some new tricks I was working along that I wanted to do, so I was very happy, just personally, to be able to do that, and then obviously ended up on the podium, and great way to start the season. It gives me a lot of confidence, I think, to know that it’s there and that I get to ride with all these girls.”

But whether she would ride with Chloe Kim at the Olympics was called into question after Chloe dislocated her left shoulder, tearing the labrum during a January training run in Switzerland.

“Going into this Olympics, definitely hit a couple bumps in the road,” Chloe Kim said. “So I’m just really grateful to be here, and I think I just want to stay positive and go out there and give it my all.”

After qualifying for the Olympics last season, Chloe Kim had planned to use the weeks leading up to Milano Cortina focused on training.

“I mean, the original plan, it was awesome, because that meant that I could, you know, take the extra time that I had from not doing some of the qualifying events and just lock in on training,” she said. “But again, had to deal with a bit of a pivot, but it was nice. Had a little like mid-season vacay, which was really fun, and I feel like now I’m ready to get back into it. This is actually my first competition of the season, so it’s kind of crazy that my first COP of the season is the Olympics, but we’ll figure it out.”

While the injury will require surgery after the season, Kim has not reinjured the shoulder since returning to halfpipe on Jan. 29.

“Everything’s pretty good,” Kim said. “It hasn’t popped out since it happened, which is awesome. I feel like it’s trending towards the right direction. I will need surgery after this event, though. But, you know, it feels really good. I have a nice shoulder brace. I can’t move my arm too much, so it almost keeps me more stable. I’m sorry you’re trying to look at things positively and not pay too much mind to the negatives.”

At least until after her runs.

“I have a shoulder brace, and it’s very securely taped, which kind of sucks at the end of riding, because I have to rip all this tape off, and it’s awful,” Kim said. “But it’s worth it, because I can snowboard actually. Maddy Schaffrick is also dealing with the same injury as I am. So we’re the buddies. Yeah, we have matching braces, yeah, but she did her right shoulder and I did my left. So if you put us together, we have two good shoulders and two bad ones.”

The injury gave her time to reflect on a career in which she has grown up in the public eye while revolutionizing her sport.

“I’ve learned so much,” she said. “I’ve snowboarded since I was 4, but I think that each day is a lesson. I think every hard day I have is a fabulous opportunity to learn. And I think as I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to learn more about myself and kind of what my boundaries are and what I’m capable of doing, maybe like sometimes, I need to learn when to back off. And I think taking a lot of time off has been really important for me and my mental well-being, because when I’m out there, I’m always giving it 150 percent, you know. And I think that, though it’s really fun and it’s satisfying and fulfilling. I get exhausted. My body gets destroyed, and I just need to chill and go home and be in the sun in California, go shopping, whatever that looks like. And it’s been a really beautiful journey to learn more about myself and kind of discover who I am. As a 25-year-old, now proud owner of a frontal lobe. It’s pretty interesting to manage, but we’re doing it.

“So yeah, I’m good.”

Kim confirmed last May that she is dating Cleveland Browns star Myles Garrett, the NFL single-season sacks record-holder. But she also remains very much in love with defying gravity, defying our imaginations.

“Funny enough, I think I’m more anxious when I’m standing at the top of the pipe, but the minute I’m moving, I’m good to go,” she said. “Muscle memory really does kick in. And I think in my last Olympics in Beijing, I had an awful practice. I actually don’t think I landed my finals run once the entire practice, and so that didn’t feel good. Definitely wasn’t ideal. But I think in those moments, I like to remind myself that every run is a new run, a brand new opportunity, and just because I had an hour of bad snowboarding doesn’t mean that the next 45 seconds are also going to be bad.”

And Thursday night, floodlights and the Olympic Games giving her the spotlight she deserves, she will once again attempt what no person, man or woman, not Shaun White or Seth Westcott or Ester Ledecká, has ever done.

“I’m just going to do what I came here to do, and if (the judges) decide to give it to me, then awesome,” Kim said. “But I’m really just grateful to be in the position where I’ve won all these events multiple times. The fact that I’m able to be here and riding, and being confident, is all I can ask for.”

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