Two-year-old snowboarding prodigy Chloe Kim needs no introduction. For more than six years, she has been the reigning queen of snowboarding, the first athlete in the sport’s history to win all four major snowboarding titles – gold at the Olympics, Youth Olympic Games, FIS Snowboard World Championships and X Games. She is the Simone Biles of snow, an athlete who redefines the genre and amazes the judges with her air awareness every time she drops into the U-tube. 2018 saw her become the first woman to land back-to-back 1080-degree landings in competition – three full spins – by landing herself in the air 30 feet above the icy slopes. 30 feet in the air above her to complete them. When she won gold at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics – at the age of 17 – she became the youngest woman in the sport’s history to win an Olympic gold medal. Four years later in Beijing, 21-year-old Ms. Kim defended her title, becoming the first woman to win multiple Olympic gold medals in snowboarding halfpipe competition.
In short, she was a very important figure. But Kim is also one of those rare super athletes whose fame lifts the veil on pop culture. As she cemented her status as a Korean snowboarding legend, she also won the hearts of millions of viewers. Before her history-making craze, she had been bemoaning not finishing her breakfast sandwich on Twitter.
A (hungry) star was born. The endorsement deals came pouring in. Magazine covers, Barbie dolls, even Frances McDormand’s shout-out at the Oscars.
But burgeoning pop culture icon Kim seems a million miles away from the woman I’m talking to today. on an early October afternoon when she was interviewed by our Zoom at her West Coast home, Kim looked every bit the perfect California girl, bleach blonde hair cascading in enviable beach waves over a short orange Hawaiian print top and sun-kissed tan skin. Far from being an irreverent, always-on, gravity-defying extreme athlete, Kim is an air of calm and happiness, like someone who decided to quit her job and move to the beach. She has – sort of.
In April, the snowboarding legend announced she would take a leave of absence for the 2022-2023 season – her second hiatus from the sport – after an “exhausting” year after an “exhausting” year, prioritizing her mental health. “I started skiing when I was four years old. I’m 22 now. It’s been 18 years,” she says. “If my snowboarding career was a kid, they could have gone to jail or joined the military.”
