By Giulia Segreti and Lisa Richwine LIVIGNO, Italy, Feb 3 (Reuters) - American Chloe Kim will aim for a third straight halfpipe gold medal as the Olympic snowboarding competitions begin on Thursday, promising breathtaking tricks and intense racing in the northern Italian town of Livigno.

Inspired by witnessing Chloe Kim's historic gold medal run at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, halfpipe snowboarder Bea Kim has taken that spark and crafted it into a successful career as she prepares for her own Olympic debut at the Milan Cortina Games.

Chloe Kim arrives at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on the brink of a historic third straight women's halfpipe gold, her decade-long snowboard dominance defined by as many twists as her gravity-defying tricks.

Japan’s Hiroto Ogiwara stunned the world with the first-ever 2340 to win men’s snowboard big air last winter at X Games Aspen. Turns out, that was a script the 20-year-old didn’t feel like changing.

The Winter Olympics set the standard for the modern games to embrace action sports when snowboarding debuted in 1998. Since, the sport has become one of the most watched of the program. Snowboarding once again will have compelling storylines going into the Milan Cortina Olympics as all the athletes will compete