Chloe Kim

Chloe Kim (born April 23, 2000) is an American snowboarder and the most decorated halfpipe rider in the history of the sport. She is a three-time Olympic medalist (gold at PyeongChang 2018, gold at Beijing 2022, silver at Milano Cortina 2026), an eight-time X Games gold medalist (tied with Shaun White for the all-time record in the discipline), a three-time World champion, and the first athlete of any gender to win halfpipe titles at all four major venues: the Olympics, the Youth Olympics, the X Games, and the FIS World Championships. She rides goofy, stands 5 ft 3 in, trains primarily out of Mammoth Mountain in California, and has been the public face of women’s snowboarding since she was 17 years old.

Kim’s career has the shape of a curve that bent twice. The first arc went straight up: silver at her X Games debut at age 13, X Games gold at 14, two Youth Olympic golds at 15, and a near-perfect 98.25 to win Olympic gold at 17 in PyeongChang, where her parents’ Korean heritage turned her into a dual-country phenomenon. The second arc was harder. After becoming the first woman to defend Olympic halfpipe gold in Beijing 2022, she stepped back from competition, attended Princeton University, took a leave, talked openly about burnout and mental health, and returned to the circuit in 2024 a different rider and a different public figure. She landed the first cab double cork 1080 in women’s halfpipe history at the 2025 Laax Open, won the 2025 World Championship, and was named the 2026 Laureus World Action Sportswoman of the Year before the Milan Games even started.

The Milano Cortina story is its own thing. A dislocated shoulder and torn labrum suffered in early January 2026 during a training run in Switzerland nearly kept her out of the Olympics entirely. She showed up anyway, qualified first with a 90.25, opened the final with an 88.00, and watched her 17-year-old protégé Choi Gaon (a skater she and her father had personally helped bring to Mammoth Mountain to train) overtake her on the final run of the night. Kim took silver, hugged Choi at the photo finish, told reporters she felt like a proud mom, and confirmed she would need shoulder surgery as soon as the Games ended. A month later, her 2026 TIME 100 entry, written by gymnast Sunisa Lee, ran in the magazine’s annual issue. It was Kim’s second time on the list. The first was in 2018.

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Quick Facts

Featured Video

Video courtesy of the New York Times official YouTube channel.

Early Life & Education

Chloe Kim was born in Long Beach, California, and raised primarily in Torrance. Her parents, Jong Jin and Boran Kim, emigrated from South Korea, her father reportedly arriving in the United States with $800 and a Korean-English dictionary. The family origin story has become part of the Kim mythology because of how relentlessly her father bet on her: he saw her snowboard for the first time at age four at a small ski area in California’s San Gabriel Mountains, decided she had something, and eventually quit his job to drive her on the 12-hour round-trip from Torrance to Mammoth Mountain every weekend. Her first board cost $25 on eBay.

She spent third and fourth grade in Geneva, Switzerland, where she lived with an aunt and trained in the Alps, and she came home fluent in French (she also speaks Korean and English). She attended Dana Middle School and joined the U.S. Snowboarding Team in 2013, at age 13. Her competitive debut at the X Games came the next year. She finished second in the superpipe in 2014 at age 13, the youngest medalist in X Games history at the time. The 2014 Sochi Olympics were already in progress; the IOC’s age minimum (15) kept her out, and most observers in the sport agreed she would have medaled if eligibility had not.

The academic chapter is its own thing. Kim was admitted to Princeton University and enrolled in fall 2019, partly because she had said in interviews she felt burned out from snowboarding and needed a life that did not revolve around it. She took a leave of absence in 2020 and has not returned to full-time enrollment since, choosing instead to compete through the Beijing and Milano Cortina Olympic cycles. She has spoken publicly and repeatedly about anxiety, racist online harassment (she has said she has received as many as 30 hateful messages a day since age 13, including being told to “go back to China” despite being American), and the cost of competing under the kind of public attention she had since she was a teenager. The Princeton acceptance letter is the single most-cited example in her interviews of a life she could have had instead.

Career Highlights and Milestones

The young-prodigy stretch of Kim’s career is the most heavily decorated in women’s snowboarding. After her 2014 X Games silver medal at 13, she won X Games gold the following year at 14, becoming the youngest gold medalist in Winter X Games history (a record subsequently broken by Kelly Sildaru). She won X Games gold again in 2016 in both Aspen and Oslo, became the first U.S. woman to win Winter Youth Olympic gold (Lillehammer 2016, where she also won halfpipe and slopestyle and served as a Team USA flag bearer), and the same year became the first woman to land back-to-back 1080s in competition. At the 2016 U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix, she scored a perfect 100, the second rider ever to do so after Shaun White. She finished atop the FIS World Cup halfpipe rankings in 2017 and arrived at PyeongChang as the heavy gold-medal favorite.

The PyeongChang final happened in front of, among other family members, her grandmother, watching her in person for the first time. Kim’s first run scored a 93.75 that no other rider could touch. She fell on her second run because she did not need it. On her third run, with the gold already locked, she put down two consecutive frontside 1080s and closed at 98.25, the highest score of the competition by nearly ten points. She was the first woman to land back-to-back 1080s at the Olympics and the youngest woman to win Olympic snowboarding gold. Her image went on a Kellogg’s Corn Flakes box that became the fastest-selling cereal box in Kellogg Company history. Mattel made her a “Shero” Barbie. Fortnite made her a playable character.

After the 2018 Olympics she stepped back, enrolled at Princeton, went on a hiatus, returned full-time, and produced perhaps the cleanest single Olympic performance of her career. At Beijing 2022, she opened the women’s halfpipe final with a score of 94.00 on her first run that no rider could approach. She used her remaining two runs to attempt a 1260, a trick no woman had ever landed in halfpipe competition. She fell both times. The 94.00 from run one was enough. She became the first woman to win back-to-back Olympic halfpipe golds. She then took another break, reportedly working with therapists on performance anxiety, and rebuilt her relationship with the sport before returning to competition in 2024 with what she described as a different mindset and a different definition of success.

The post-Beijing era has produced some of the most technically significant moments of her career. She tied Kelly Clark’s record for X Games SuperPipe golds with her seventh title at Aspen 2024 and broke it the next year. She landed the first cab double cork 1080 in women’s halfpipe competition at the 2025 Laax Open, the same competition where she won her fifth Laax title, and she became the first woman to land a 1260 in competition history in 2024. She won the 2025 World Championship, her third world title in three appearances. Then came the Milano Cortina injury and the Milano Cortina silver, the protégé moment with Choi Gaon, the announcement that she was retiring, and the news (per multiple Olympic-week interviews) that she would need shoulder surgery as soon as the Games ended. She closed her Olympic competitive career with three medals across three Games. No rider has ever gone gold-gold-silver in halfpipe before. And a podium hug for the kid who beat her.

Selected Career Highlights

• 2014 Winter X Games Aspen: silver in superpipe at age 13, youngest medalist in X Games history at the time
• 2015 Winter X Games Aspen: gold in superpipe at 14, youngest X Games gold medalist
• 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games (Lillehammer): gold in halfpipe and slopestyle, Team USA flag bearer, highest snowboard halfpipe score in YOG history
• 2016 U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix: scored a perfect 100, first woman to land back-to-back 1080s
• 2018 Olympic Winter Games (PyeongChang): gold, halfpipe, score 98.25, youngest woman to win Olympic snowboarding gold
• 2019 FIS Snowboarding World Championships (Park City): gold, halfpipe (first World title)
• 2021 FIS Snowboarding World Championships (Aspen): gold, halfpipe (second World title)
• 2022 Olympic Winter Games (Beijing): gold, halfpipe, score 94.00, first woman to defend Olympic halfpipe gold
• 2024 Winter X Games Aspen: 7th X Games SuperPipe gold, tying Kelly Clark’s record
• 2024: first woman to land a 1260 in competition
• 2025 Laax Open: first woman to land a cab double cork 1080 in halfpipe competition; fifth career Laax title
• 2025 Winter X Games Aspen: 8th X Games SuperPipe gold, tying Shaun White for most halfpipe golds in X Games history
• 2025 FIS Snowboarding World Championships (Engadin): gold, halfpipe (third World title)
• 2026 Olympic Winter Games (Milano Cortina): silver, halfpipe (third Olympic medal across three Games)

Major Recognition

• 2× Olympic halfpipe gold medalist (2018, 2022)
• Olympic halfpipe silver medalist (2026)
• 3× FIS World champion in halfpipe (2019, 2021, 2025)
• 8× X Games SuperPipe gold medalist (tied with Shaun White for most in event history)
• 2× Winter Youth Olympic gold medalist (2016, halfpipe and slopestyle)
• Laureus World Action Sportswoman of the Year (2026)
• TIME 100 Most Influential People (2018, 2026)
• 3× ESPY Best Female Action Sports Athlete
• Forbes 30 Under 30 (2017)
• TIME 30 Most Influential Teens (2016, 2017)
• First athlete to win halfpipe titles at all four majors (Olympics, Youth Olympics, X Games, FIS Worlds)

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Awards and Accolades

Career Stats & Records

Selected significant seasons shown. Career also includes 12 World Cup victories and 14 World Cup podiums in 19 starts, plus five Laax Open titles. See Major Competition History for additional event detail.

Major Competition History

Net Worth, Income, & Lifestyle

Social Media & Online Presence

Fan communities on social media (unofficial)

NOTE: In addition to any official accounts listed above, many fan-run pages, clip accounts, and statistical tracker accounts exist across all platforms. These are not confirmed to be affiliated with Chloe Kim. Links and usernames can change at any time. Always verify a social media handle through Kim’s verified accounts before following, subscribing, or purchasing through any source claiming affiliation.

Trivia & Lesser-Known Facts

• Her father, Jong Jin Kim, reportedly arrived in the United States from South Korea with $800 and a Korean-English dictionary, and quit his engineering job to drive her on the 12-hour round-trip from Torrance to Mammoth Mountain every weekend so she could train.
• She is fluent in three languages: English, Korean, and French. The French came from spending third and fourth grade living with an aunt in Geneva, Switzerland, where she trained in the Alps.
• She co-founded Togethxr in 2021 with soccer’s Alex Morgan, basketball’s Sue Bird, and swimmer Simone Manuel, building a media and commerce platform focused on women’s sports.
• She appeared on Season 4 of The Masked Singer in 2020 as the character “Jellyfish” while taking time away from competitive snowboarding.
• A special-edition Kellogg’s Corn Flakes box featuring her face after the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics became the fastest-selling cereal box in Kellogg Company history. Mattel later released a “Shero” Barbie in her likeness, and Fortnite added her as a playable character.
• At the 2025 Laax Open, she became the first woman to land a cab double cork 1080 in halfpipe competition. The trick involves two off-axis flips and three full rotations (1,080 degrees), entered switch.

Quotes

“A month ago it wasn’t looking too good for me to even come out, and I got no reps on snow, so the fact that I was able to come out here makes me so proud and I’m so happy to walk away with a medal.”

– Chloe Kim, post-event interview after winning silver at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, Olympics.com (February 2026)

“I feel like a proud mom. The future of snowboarding is in good hands.”

– Chloe Kim, on Choi Gaon’s gold-medal run at Milano Cortina 2026, NPR (February 2026)

“I’m not saying that that’s why I love snowboarding, for the money. I realized that I was fortunate to be able to do something that was not really conventional, and be successful at it, and get to live the most awesome life, too.”

– Chloe Kim, on her first Monster Energy contract at age 13, Elle via Stylecaster (2026)

“I have this different opportunity because I’m Korean-American, but I’m riding for the States. I’m starting to understand that I can represent both countries.”

– Chloe Kim, on competing at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics in her parents’ homeland (archived interview, Wikipedia)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: How old was Chloe Kim when she won her first Olympic gold medal?
A: She was 17 years and 10 months old when she won the women’s halfpipe at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games, becoming the youngest woman in Olympic history at the time to win a snowboarding gold medal.

Q: How many Olympic medals does Chloe Kim have?
A: Three. She has won two Olympic halfpipe golds (PyeongChang 2018, Beijing 2022) and a silver at the 2026 Milano Cortina Games, where she lost gold to South Korea’s 17-year-old Choi Gaon.

Q: Who is Chloe Kim dating?
A: She is dating Myles Garrett, the All-Pro defensive end for the Cleveland Browns of the NFL. The relationship was confirmed publicly in November 2025.

Q: Why didn’t Chloe Kim compete at the 2014 Sochi Olympics?
A: She was 13 years old at the time, below the IOC’s age minimum (15) for snowboarding events. She had already won an X Games silver medal at that age and was widely considered a medal contender if she had been eligible.

Q: Did Chloe Kim attend Princeton?
A: Yes. She was admitted in 2018, deferred to focus on snowboarding through the 2018 Olympics, enrolled in fall 2019, and took a leave of absence in 2020 to return to full-time training. She has not yet returned to complete her degree.

Q: How many X Games gold medals does Chloe Kim have?
A: Eight, all in the women’s snowboard SuperPipe. The eighth (won at Aspen 2025) tied her with Shaun White for the most halfpipe golds in X Games history by any rider.

Q: Is Chloe Kim retiring after the 2026 Olympics?
A: She has indicated, including in post-event interviews and reportedly to Choi Gaon at the medal ceremony, that the Milano Cortina Games were her last Olympic competition. She also confirmed she will require shoulder surgery for the labral tear suffered in early January 2026. As of this writing, no formal retirement announcement has been made.

Upcoming Projects / Season Outlook

• Shoulder surgery and recovery (spring 2026): Kim has confirmed in multiple post-event interviews (NBC, Olympics.com, Yahoo Sports) that she will undergo surgery to repair the dislocated left shoulder and torn labrum suffered in January 2026. The procedure was deferred only because there was no time to do it before the Games.
• 2026 TIME 100 Gala (New York City, April 23, 2026): Confirmed honoree and red-carpet attendee, with TIME 100 tribute written by Sunisa Lee. Second TIME 100 selection, after 2018.
• 2026 Laureus World Sports Awards (Madrid, April 21, 2026): Received the World Action Sportswoman of the Year award.
• Roxy and Toyota brand activity (ongoing through 2026): Continues as the public face of Roxy outerwear and a U.S. ambassador for Toyota’s Olympic partnership.
• Togethxr (ongoing): Continues as a co-owner and on-air media presence at the women’s-sports company she co-founded.
• 2026–27 competitive season: No formal competitive plans have been announced as of press time. Coverage of the post-event press cycle suggests she is unlikely to compete in the 2026–27 World Cup season. Treat all competitive return information as unconfirmed pending an official statement.

Interviews & Features

• TIME, “After Back-to-Back Gold, Why Is Chloe Kim So Happy With Silver?” (February 2026), a long-form post-event feature on the Milano Cortina silver, the dislocated shoulder, and her relationship with Choi Gaon.
• NPR, “Chloe Kim’s protégé foiled her Olympic three-peat dreams. She’s celebrating anyway” (February 2026), on the Kim and Choi mentor-protégé arc and the family connection between the two.
• TIME 100, “Chloe Kim: The 100 Most Influential People of 2026” (April 2026), tribute written by gymnast Sunisa Lee.
• Olympics.com, “Winter Olympics 2026: USA’s Chloe Kim ‘so proud of myself for getting through and fighting’ after silver medal” (February 2026), a full post-final interview.
• NBC Olympics, “Chloe Kim Bio: Career timeline, Olympic medals, Road to 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics” (December 2025), a pre-Games biographical feature with career timeline and pre-Milano Cortina mental-health context.

Public Appearances, Games, & Events

• Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games (February 11–12, 2026): Won silver in the women’s halfpipe at Livigno Snow Park, Italy; appeared at multiple Team USA events during the Games.
• 2025 FIS Snowboarding World Championships (March 2025): Won her third career World halfpipe title in Engadin, Switzerland.
• 2025 Laax Open (January 2025): Won her fifth career Laax title in Laax, Switzerland; landed the first cab double cork 1080 in women’s halfpipe competition history.
• 2025 Winter X Games Aspen (January 2025): Won 8th career X Games SuperPipe gold in Aspen, Colorado, tying Shaun White’s all-time record.
• 2026 Laureus World Sports Awards (April 21, 2026): Received World Action Sportswoman of the Year in Madrid, recognizing the 2025 season.
• 2026 TIME 100 Gala (April 23, 2026): Honoree and red-carpet attendee at the gala in New York City, with TIME 100 tribute written by Sunisa Lee.