By: Michael Curtis:
If you don’t know Chloe Kim by now, just put her name into Google and you will be astonished at what you find. Kim is a 17-year snowboarding phenom competing at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. She has been competing at a very high level for quite some time. Kim won 3 gold medals at the X-games before the age of 16. She even qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi but didn’t go because she was too young.
This year in the Pyeongchang Olympics Chloe Kim became the youngest women to win an Olympic snowboarding medal when she took home the gold medal in the women’s snowboard half-pipe. Since then she has become quite the star. She has been featured on almost every news outlet in the country and even been on a few Television shows like The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. According to Billboard, Jimmy and Chloe decided it would be amusing to photobomb people at the Olympics.
Kim also is going to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, a dream that every young athlete has. She and her dog are on the cover of this weeks issue of the magazine. She is becoming America’s favorite new celeb with every move she makes.
Chloe Kim’s story starts with her father, who broke Twitter when a picture surfaced of him holding a laminated “Go Chloe” sign. Jong Jin Kim’s story is nothing less than exceptional. The New York Times reports he immigrated to the United States from South Korea in 1982. When he first came to the United States, he worked minimum wage jobs. He eventually moved to Torrance, California where People Magazine reports he attended college and worked part-time as a machinist. He first took Chloe to the mountain when she was only 4 years old. Since then, he has constantly promoted Chloe to follow her dreams and win a gold medal. Chloe’s father actually quit his job to focus on his daughter and her dreams, according to CNN. His devotion is truly admirable.
To win the gold medal in South Korea is very special to Chloe. According to People Magazine she said, “It’s such an honor to just represent the U.S. and the country where my parents immigrated from. This whole process has been amazing, and this journey has been so fun and full of so many memories that I will hold onto for the rest of my life.”
Chloe Kim can be an inspiration to everyone. Chloe and her father truly do have a one of kind story that so many can admire. Her achievement, along with her fathers devotion to his daughter, is one for the record books.
THE AC301 