Feb 4, 2022 - Sports

U.S. snowboarder Chloe Kim ready "to go off" in Winter Olympics after hiatus

Kendall Baker

U.S. snowboarder Chloe Kim is looking for her second gold in snowboard halfpipe at age 21, after a transcendent performance led to her winning gold four years ago.

The big picture: When then-17-year-old Kim became the youngest woman ever to win Olympic snowboarding gold in 2018, it was hardly a surprise. If anything, it was long overdue because she was simply too young to compete at the 2014 Games.

She entered her first competition at age six, won junior nationals at eight and was a five-time X Games medalist by 16. The accolades keep coming, with four more golds at the World Championships and X Games since Pyeongchang.
But it wasn't all smooth sailing. Kim's sudden fame and the racism she faced as a Korean American put her in a "dark place," she told Time. She took nearly two years off and attended Princeton before returning to snowboarding last January.

What she's saying: At one point Kim said that she was “so burnt out, I just couldn’t do it anymore,” she said.

The event: Kim's Olympic debut in the halfpipe was transcendent, as she became the first woman to land back-to-back 1080s. Now, "she's doing tricks that some of the men don't even want to," said 2018 bronze medalist Arielle Gold.

"She is the greatest women's snowboarder of all time, by far," added Gold, her former USA teammate.

What to watch: Kim plans to unveil three new tricks in Beijing, but won't provide details beyond that. "They're an upgrade ... I'm going to go off."

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U.S. snowboarder Chloe Kim ready "to go off" in Winter Olympics after hiatus

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