Chloe Kim might be the greatest women's snowboarder of all time,
with sponsorship deals in the millions at the age of 21 – and she's only just
getting started. Here's everything you probably don't know about Chloe Kim.
Before she made history as the first person to take the championship spot at the X Games,
Youth Olympics, World Snowboarding, and the Olympics, Chloe Kim was just
another aspiring athlete with some real supportive parents.
Kim was born on April 23, 2000, in Long Beach, California to parents Boran Yun Kim and Jong Jin
Kim. Chloe's father, Jong Jin Kim, immigrated to the United States in 1982 from South Korea.
Jong Jin later gave up his career to dedicate his life to helping Chloe train.
Kim's father is her biggest supporter, and is frequently caught in pictures on the sidelines
cheering his daughter on with a large "Go Chloe!" sign in hand. In fact,
her father told "Today" in 2018 that his daughter is the embodiment of his "American Dream."
Not only did Kim's father give up his own career to help her pursue snowboarding full-time,
but he's the one that got her into the sport in the first place.
Kim told People in 2018 that she has been snowboarding since she was only 4 years old,
and was initially brought out onto the slopes as a
way to convince her mom to get out on the mountainside too.
Kim's dad also gets to use his old job as an engineer in helping her train,
explaining the physics of her movements as she works to defy gravity.
Chloe Kim also has two older sisters, Erica and Tracy, from her father's previous marriage.
According to a 2018 Cosmopolitan feature, they were raised in a very culturally Korean
environment with traditional Korean meals, including her mother's homemade bulgogi.
For Kim, the 2018 Olympics were a chance for her to represent the U.S.,
Korea, and her family, some of whom still reside in South Korea.
Her family members aren't the only people that she has in her support system. As of late 2021,
Chloe Kim was reportedly dating Evan Berle, a former professional skateboarder,
and student at UCLA. The couple met in 2019 through mutual friends.
In the summer of 2020, Kim and Berle reportedly moved in together in a new home in Los Angeles,
located within a few blocks of Kim's parents' house. That way, she says, if she's ever
craving her mom's cooking, it couldn't be easier to call her up and arrange a visit.
Chloe Kim was accepted at Princeton University
after she won her first gold medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
"I want to go to Princeton, so that fact that it actually happened is just absolutely insane."
Attending school at Princeton was difficult for her at first because so many people recognized
her, making it difficult to enjoy a more routine and grounded college experience.
After a while, Kim adjusted and made friends with people who weren't so familiar with her fame,
earning herself a much-needed break from international stardom. During the
coronavirus pandemic, Chloe maintained her studies online as she began training again.
As of the fall of 2021, Chloe has taken a leave of
absence from Princeton to focus on her training for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
By 2018, Chloe Kim had made such a huge name for herself that she
was the inspiration behind a new Barbie doll.
“Barbie, The snowboarder from the winter X Games? Watching her board is like watching ballet."
Kim had a Barbie doll made in her likeness as part of Barbie's "Shero" collection,
Kim's Barbie doll was released in a collection that aimed to inspire young girls to find role
models, with her figure being released alongside other inspiring women such as
aviator Amelia Earhart, painter Frida Kahlo and NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson.
In a statement to Teen Vogue, Kim responded to getting her
own Barbie doll by saying that she was honored to be considered a role model,
and wanted girls to know that they shouldn't be afraid to be athletic and girly at the same time.
In early 2022, Chloe Kim decided to be open about how hard life was
for her after the 2018 Olympics were over. After the high point of the 2018 Olympics,
Kim said she struggled with the sudden fame and constant recognition,
to the extent that she at one point threw her gold medal from the Olympics in the trash.
In 2021, she opened up about the frequent racism and racist taunts she has experienced for years
as an athlete. Kim told ESPN that, after she won a silver medal in 2014 at the X Games,
"There were messages in my DMs telling me to go back to China
and to stop taking medals away from the white American girls on the team."
Between the racism Kim experienced, the pressure of being an athlete, and the surge
in international attention, Kim's mental health has taken a toll since her big win in 2018.
According to Time magazine, Kim started going to therapy after isolation during the COVID-19
pandemic led to the realization that she needed to get her mental health in check.
This has made her feel more at peace with her life and herself,
and she says she feels excited to take on the Beijing Olympics in 2022.
With Chloe Kim's unprecedented talent and bubbly personality, it didn't take
long before she was sought out by major brands for lucrative endorsements. According to Time,
Kim is the highest-paid female snowboarder in history with sponsors such as Nike, Toyota,
and Procter & Gamble. The arrangements earn her millions of dollars each year,
with her current earnings from endorsements reportedly being in the mid-seven figures.
Not only is Kim rolling in the dough, but she's also doing it on her own terms.
In 2018, Kim told CNBC that she only wants to work with sponsors
if they can come to an agreement on the message being presented.
If she doesn't agree with a sponsor's message, she says she doesn't want to work with them.
In 2021, Kim also partnered up with the brand Roxy
to create a "snow collection" of outerwear pieces set to come out in winter 2022.
"I've always loved Roxy – everything they're about,
outerwear especially. So I'm so excited to finally be a part of the team!"
While Kim is a self-defined "fashion over function type of gal," she is also tapping
into her own experiences to help make the clothes in the collection more functional.
One example is a pair of overalls she helped design that come with a back flap with a
zipper to make it easier to use the restroom during a break from a snowboarding session.
With the Beijing Olympics and her new clothing line on the horizon,
it sounds like winter 2022 will be an exciting season for the athlete
who's been called the greatest women's snowboarder of all time.
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