Anyone who watched the 2018 Olympics at Pyeongchang would agree: Chloe Kim is an absolute beast. However, Tomisin and I are here to tell you things you may not already know. Believe us. She is even more impressive that you imagined her to be.
In 2018, Kim debuted as an Olympic athlete in South Korea, the country her parents were born in, which put her under enormous pressure to succeed. According to “Times,” she had been dubbed as “the best pipe snowboarder in the world” before the 2014 Sochi Olympics, and even after qualifying for the games at thirteen, she was not allowed to compete because she was two years under the age limit. Now, at seventeen, there were impossibly high, built-up expectations. Anyone else might have crumbled under the pressure. But not Chloe Kim. She soared to an 98.25/100 — an easy gold medal — and became the youngest woman to place in Olympic snowboarding.
Although her Olympic debut was just last year, she was far from a beginner. She had already won four (now five) X Games titles, her first one captured at fourteen. At fifteen, she became the second person in history to get a perfect 100 on a halfpipe run.
Many people are just as impressed with her personality as with her talent. She has been nothing but excited, smiley and outstandingly authentic as she answers questions, interviews and posts on twitter and Instagram.
Kim’s success couldn’t have been possible without the support she got from her family. She started snowboarding at four years old. Her parents took her on countless trips to Mammoth Mountain in California so that she could practice. When Kim was only eight years old, her father saw her potential in snowboarding and made the ultimate sacrifice. He quit his hard-earned engineering job to fully support his daughter capture an opportunity to become a star.
Hilariously enough, after winning an Olympic gold medal, the biggest challenge for Kim now is school. She will attend Princeton University in the fall, and her excitement and enthusiasm for college are evident. Although balancing snowboarding and college will not be easy, she is confident she can handle it.