Chloe Kim

While too young to compete in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Kim earned a silver medal in superpipe in the 2014 Winter X Games behind Kelly Clark. In 2015, Chloe won Gold in the superpipe at the Winter X Games, besting Clark.[12] With this win, at age 14, Kim became the youngest gold medalist until she lost the record to Kelly Sildaru, who won gold in 2016 at the age of 13.[13][14] In the 2016 X Games, she became the first person under the age of 16 to win two gold medals (and also the first person to win back-to-back gold medals) at an X Games.[15][16] At that year's U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix, Kim became the first woman to land back-to-back 1080 spins in a snowboarding competition.[6][16][17] She scored a perfect 100 points and is the second rider ever to do so, after Shaun White.[18]

In 2016, Kim became the first American woman to win a gold medal in snowboarding at the Winter Youth Olympic Games and earned the highest snowboarding score in Youth Olympic Games history at the time.[4] She was selected as Team USA's flag bearer for the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games, becoming the first snowboarder chosen to serve as flag bearer for Team USA at either the Olympic Winter Games or Youth Olympic Games.[19] Kim was nominated for the 2016 ESPYS award for Best Breakthrough Athlete.[20]

At Kim's first Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, she won the gold medal in the Women's Halfpipe finals with Ricky Bower as her coach.[21] Her first score was 93.75 points, which was 8.5 points ahead of second place. Her last score in the halfpipe was close to a perfect score at 98.25 points. She was nearly 10 points ahead of Liu Jiayu, who placed second.[22] Kim became the youngest woman to ever land two 1080-degree spins in a row at the Olympics.[23] At age 17, she became the youngest woman to ever win gold at the Olympics in the halfpipe, surpassing the past record holder, Kelly Clark, who had won the gold when she was 19.[24] This record landed Kim a position on Time magazine's annual Time 100 list.[25]

Kim became a two-time Olympian when she competed at her second consecutive Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. Kim entered the women's halfpipe event. She successfully defended her Olympic title, thus becoming the first female snowboarder to win back-to-back gold medals at the snowboard halfpipe event.[26][27]

After qualifying for the final in first place with a score of 87.75, achieved in her first run, Kim won the event with a score of 94.00, also achieved in her first run. She used her additional two runs in the final to attempt a new trick, but in both attempts was unable to stick the landing. As a result, her scores for the second and third runs were low (27.00 and 26.25 respectively) and thus discarded, with the score from her first run counted to secure the Olympic title.

Kim is a second-generation Korean-American; her parents, Boran Yun Kim and Jong Jin Kim, emigrated from South Korea during the country's authoritarian era. Her father first arrived with just $800 in cash and worked minimum-wage jobs, eventually earning a college degree at the El Camino College in manufacturing engineering technology.[37][38] He eventually quit his job to help his daughter pursue her snowboarding career.[37]

Kim has extended family living in South Korea, where she competed in the 2018 Winter Olympics. Her relatives, including her grandmother, watched her compete for the first time at the Olympics.[39] Kim stated, "I have this different opportunity because I'm Korean-American, but I'm riding for the States. ... I'm starting to understand that I can represent both countries."[37] Kim was admitted to Princeton University in 2018, but deferred the offer of admission until 2019. She wants to study science.[40]

Kim stated that despite being born in the United States and having always represented the country professionally at international events, she experiences racist and hateful messages regularly, up to 30 a day, as far back as she was age 13.[41] She stated that because she was Asian, people would often belittle her accomplishments, telling her to "stop taking medals away from the white American girls on the team", as well as to "go back to China".[42][43]

She has also spoken up about the rise of anti-Asian hate crime and violence in the country since the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that she is constantly worried about her parents' safety.[42] She added that she would always bring along a knife, pepper spray, and tasers whenever she goes outdoors to do her errands as well as avoiding crowded places in general.[43]