Meet Olympic snowboarder and Instagram star Chloe Kim: she just won gold at the 2022 Beijing Games, is pals with China’s Eileen Gu and is already raking in millions thanks to brand endorsements
- She learned to snowboard at California’s Mammoth Mountain and has been so dominant in Youth Olympics and Winter X Games that she made the cover of Time in January
- Despite prize money from the US Olympic Committee, the big bucks – millions a year – come from endorsements for Nike, Breitling, Samsung and Laneige, as seen on her Instagram
As the world enters another phase of Covid-19 lockdowns, the ongoing 2022 Beijing Olympics is here to provide some respite. We are only halfway through, but the sporting extravaganza has already provided surprises, drama and popular winners – like 21-year-old Chloe Kim, a fan favourite who recently snatched another gold medal in the half-pipe snowboarding category.
“I was so proud of myself. I had the worst practice ever,” Kim shouted after landing the run and earning her high score, according to CNN. She also praised her fellow competitors and said in an interview that “the girls are killing it”.
Here’s everything you need to know about the young and talented Miss Kim.
She will go down in history
At the 2018 Winter Olympics, Kim stole the spotlight after winning gold at only 17. Kim also became the youngest female Olympic gold medallist in snowboarding, a feat she achieved after also becoming the first woman to land back-to-back 1080s (three full rotations in the air) at the Olympics.
With her recent Beijing win, she became the only female athlete to win back-to-back half-pipe golds, too. Her score of 94.00 put her almost four points above second-placed Queralt Castellet of Spain and almost six ahead of Japan’s Tomita Sena in bronze.
What’s more, having nailed that high score in the first round, she used her second and third runs (only the highest of the three is counted) to try a new trick, although she failed to land it.