Chloe Kim

Some Lesser Known Facts About Chloe Kim

• Her family lives in South Korea, and she is a second-generation Korean American.

• Her parents, Boran Yoon Kim and Jong Jin Kim, moved from South Korea when a strict government took control of the country.

• According to some media sources, her father came to the U.S. with only $800. He worked in several low-paying jobs and later joined El Camino College to earn a degree in manufacturing engineering technology.

  

• Later, he left his job to support Kim’s snowboarding career.

• Kim started learning snowboarding when she was four years old.

  

• She learned to snowboard at Mountain High resort in Southern California.

• At the age of six, she started competing with Team Mountain High.

• She studied and trained in Geneva, Switzerland, during her third and fourth grades, as her aunt lived there.

• After that, she went back to California from Geneva and trained at Mammoth Mountain in Mammoth Lakes, California.

• Kim is fluent in French, English, and Korean.

• Her father left his job to drive her to the snowboarding locations. He often accompanies her to competitions.

• In 2013, Kim became a member of the U.S. Snowboarding Team.

• In 2014, Kim competed in the Winter Olympics held in Sochi, Russia.

  

• In 2014, she won a silver medal in superpipe at the Winter X Games, coming second to Kelly Clark.

• In 2015, Kim participated in the Winter X Games and won a gold medal in superpipe. She defeated her opponent, Kelly Clark.

• At the age of 14, Kim became the youngest gold medal winner, a record that was broken by Kelly Sildaru in 2016, who won gold at the age of 13.

• In 2016, at the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix, Kim became the first woman to do two 1080 spins in a row during a snowboarding contest. She scored 100 points and became the second rider to get this score, after Shaun White.

• In the 2016 X Games, Kim became the first person under 16 years old to win two gold medals. She was also the first person to win gold medals two times in a row at the X Games.

  

• In 2016, Kim became the first American woman to win a gold medal in snowboarding at the Winter Youth Olympic Games. She received the highest snowboarding score ever at the Youth Olympic Games.

• That same year, Kim was chosen to carry the flag for Team USA during the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Youth Olympic Games.

• She then became the first snowboarder to be a flag bearer for Team USA at the Olympic Winter Games or Youth Olympic Games.

  

• In 2016, Kim was nominated for the ESPYS award for Best Breakthrough Athlete.

• In 2018, she participated in the Winter Olympics held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, where she won a gold medal in Women’s Halfpipe finals with coach Ricky Bower.

• Her first run scored 93.75 points, leading second place by 8.5 points. Her final halfpipe run scored 98.25 points.

• She beat her opponent, Liu Jiayu, who secured second position, by nearly 10 points.

• She then became the youngest woman to land two 1080-degree spins in a row at the Olympics.

  

• In 2018, Kim was admitted to Princeton University, but did not start until 2019. According to some media reports, she struggled to deal with her fame at Princeton.

• In 2018, a special Kellogg’s Corn Flakes box featuring Kim became the fastest-selling cereal box in the company’s history.

  

• In 2018, Mattel made a Shero Barbie doll that looks like Kim. This doll is part of a series showing inspiring women, including Amelia Earhart.

  

• In 2018, her family, including her grandmother, saw her compete for the first time at the Olympics held in Korea.

• When she was 17 years old, she became the youngest woman to win Olympic halfpipe gold, beating Kelly Clark’s record from age 19.

• After this, she was featured on Time magazine’s Time 100 list.

  

• In February 2019, Kim appeared in a ‘Dream Crazier’ commercial by Nike. She was featured alongside Serena Williams, Simone Biles, and other female athletes. The ad was shown during the 2019 Oscars.

  

• In 2020, Kim participated in the reality show The Masked Singer Season 4, where she performed as ‘Jellyfish.’ Kim reached the semi-finals of the competition but was unmasked in a triple elimination.

  

• In 2022, Kim participated in her second Winter Olympics held in Beijing, China, and became a two-time Olympian.

• She entered the women’s halfpipe event and defended her Olympic gold title.

• She then became the first woman snowboarder to win back-to-back golds in the halfpipe.

• During the Winter Olympics, in qualifying, her first run scored 87.75 points and put her in first place. In the final, her first run scored 94.00 points to win the event.

• She used her next two runs to try a new trick, but could not land it. Those runs scored low at 27.00 and 26.25 points, so they got thrown out. Her first run score gave her an Olympic gold title.

  

• In March 2022, she was added to the game Fortnite as a playable character in the icon series.

  

• Therefore, she decided to stop school early and return to snowboarding before the 2022 Olympics.

• In 2024, Kim became the first woman to do a 1260 spin in a competition.

• Kim has won the Laax Open five times. On 18 January 2025, Kim became the first woman to do a double cork 1080 in a snowboard halfpipe at the Laax Open.

  

• In 2025 at the X Games, Kim won her eighth gold medal in superpipe. This made her the woman with the most superpipe wins at the X Games.

• It also tied her with Shaun White for the most superpipe wins by any person at the X Games.

• After winning an Olympic gold medal, she has been featured on the covers of numerous renowned magazines and tabloids, including Sports Illustrated, TIME, Shape, and ESPN.

  

• Kim often shares in the media that she is a Korean-American and has the special opportunity to play for the United States. She said that she wanted to represent both Korea and the United States.

• Kim often gets many racist and hateful messages, even though she was born in the U.S. and represents the U.S. in sports.

• According to her, she has received more than 30 hateful messages every day since she was 13 years old. Once, during a media conversation, she stated that some people put down her achievements because she is Asian. People told her to,
  

  Stop taking medals away from the white American girls on the team, and go back to China.”

  

• She has talked about the increase in hate crimes and violence against Asian people since the COVID-19 pandemic. She said that she often worried about the safety of her parents.

• According to Kim, she dislikes visiting crowded places, and she always carries a knife, pepper spray, and tasers when she goes outside.