SNOWBOARDER UNITED STATESI just go into a contest looking to put down a good run. As long as I feel like I’ve done what I came to do and I’m happy with my riding, where I end up doesn’t matter that much to me.
—CHLOE KIM
Chloe stood at the top of the drop-in hill, contemplating the half-pipe. It was a perfect day at the US Snowboarding Grand Prix. Blue skies and fast snow. The fifteen-year-old prodigy had already clinched the gold medal in her earlier run. With her nearly perfect first run, she had beaten her idol and the reining American champ, Kelly Clark. Now it was time to take it easy. Nothing crazy, just get through the pipe and don’t get hurt.
But Chloe didn’t feel like playing it safe.
Why not? she thought. She hadn’t worked on the trick in practice and hadn’t been planning to do it here in Park City, Utah. But she felt a little crazy.
She went into a tuck, bouncing on her toes and gaining speed as she hit the deck. Over the lip and down into the pipe she flew. Then up the right wall, and—
“Look at the size of that backside air!” yelled an announcer.1
Hovering in the air, Chloe grabbed the back of her board and then soared back down into the pipe. More speed. She hit the left wall fast, and at the lip, she threw her body into a frontside spin.
One. Two. Three times around . . . And boom! She landed it perfectly. A 1080.
“She’s setting the standard for women to follow,” a second announcer crowed.2
Back down into the pipe, picking up speed again. Could she do it? Should she do it? Chloe hit the lip and her body decided for her, twisting into a backside spin.
One. Two. Three times around! She landed a second 1080!
“Whoa-ho-ho!!!” The announcers at Park City whooped excitedly.
“Oh my goodness, back to back! Are you kidding me?” yelled one.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you have just witnessed history!” cried another. “That has never been done before!”3
At the finish line, Chloe laughed and gasped for breath. She’d done it! She was the first female to hit back-to-back 1080s! Kelly Clark, the best female snowboarder in history, was the first to wrap her arms around Chloe in a congratulatory hug.
“That was insane,” she said quietly. Chloe just laughed.4
“Insane” is right. Fifteen-year-old Chloe not only landed a nearly impossible trick but also earned a perfect score of one hundred for the run. Another first for women. Sean White is the only other snowboarder to earn a perfect score ever, and he’s twice Chloe’s age! The girl dubbed “The Future of Women’s Snowboarding” is claiming her spot at the top of the sport.
Believe it or not, Chloe Kim didn’t really like snowboarding at first. Her parents immigrated to southern California from Korea. When Chloe was four, her father took her snowboarding for the first time. “My dad pretty much dragged me into it,” she remembers.5 But it was a way to spend time with him, and after a few years, Chloe grew to love it.
She was just six when she started competing, and by age ten, she realized she wanted to be a professional snowboarder. That’s when she began training and competing more seriously. Chloe joined the US Snowboarding team at thirteen.
An early snowboard model was dubbed a snurfer, combining the words snow and surfer.
Chloe’s been racking up wins and setting records ever since. Her first year on the team, she won her first X Games medal (silver), and over the next three years, she won three gold medals. She is the only X Games athlete in history to win three gold medals before the age of sixteen.6 And in 2016, as the youngest member of the US Snowboarding team, she not only won gold in the X Games but she became the first woman to land back-to-back 1080s and to score a perfect hundred.7 That same year, at the Winter Youth Olympics, she was the first snowboarder to be the Team USA flag bearer, the first American woman to win a gold medal in snowboarding, and the winner of the highest snowboarding score in Youth Olympic history.8 Not a bad year for Chloe Kim!
Although snowboarding takes up most of her time, Chloe does have other interests. She is fluent in French, English, and Korean, she plays guitar, and she loves animals and “tranny skating” (or transitional skating, which involves doing tricks with a skateboard).
Her coach for the US Snowboarding team, Ricky Bower, is confident about her future: “She rides with a tremendous amount of amplitude and carries a lot more speed than any other female in the half-pipe. She’s in a whole different league. There’s really no one that can ride like that.”9
At the time of printing, Chloe is only seventeen years old. She has a full career ahead of her, and the heights of her achievements on the slopes are anyone’s guess. But most experts are betting that Chloe is the new American (and possibly world) champion of snowboarding. No doubt, she’s got a long and glorious ride ahead of her.
It’s always important to work hard, but never forget to have fun. I think that in snowboarding . . . when I stop having fun and I take things a little too seriously, that’s when I don’t really enjoy it as much. And I just have to take a step back and realize . . . how much I love snowboarding . . . That’s when I learn so much more and I progress more when I’m having fun.
—CHLOE KIM