I'm so happy to have all this support from everyone around the world, and I'm forever thankful for all of them.
— Chloe Kim
I feel like I have this unique opportunity to represent both Korea and the U.S.
I love competing so much.
Over the years, I've hurt my thumb, separated my shoulder, and injured my back, but not too bad. Actually, my back was hurt pretty bad. I had to take an ambulance and was in bed for a week.
Snowboarding brought me out of my shell.
Being in a class with kids, meeting new people, and borrowing notes from other students - I've never done that before. I've always had to fend for myself.
I 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.
If I had a message to give my dad, it'd probably be, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you.' He's helped me so much on this crazy journey. Giving up his job, being away from my mom, and being away from home for that much just because of me? It's a lot. And I thank him for it.
Luckily for me, snowboarding doesn't really feel like work unless I'm actually doing stuff that's, like, work-ish, but when I'm just snowboarding, I'm having so much fun.
I did my first contest, and I got third, and my dad was, like, 'Wow, she has potential.' And I went back when I was 7, and I won. And my dad's like, 'All right,' and then he dropped everything.
I think I've started to have a lot more fun around snowboarding, even going out of the halfpipe and going to hit some jumps or getting some 'pow.' That definitely made it a lot more fun to me, just adding that much positivity into snowboarding.
I don't snowboard to win everything. I do it because I love it. I do it because I have fun, and everyone else can think whatever they want. For me, it's all about fun, and I enjoy it so much.
It's hard to describe my style. People will tell me that I'm really flowy.
My dad is a very determined person.
Four is actually my lucky number.
I try not to feel pressure, because I feel like it kind of throws you off. I always try to focus on myself. But it does kind of creep into the back of my mind.
I knew if I went home with the gold medal knowing that I could do better, I wasn't going to be very satisfied.
I have two aunts and three cousins in Korea as well.
My mom wouldn't let me dye my hair for the longest time.
My dad gave up his job; he stopped working - for me. Without that, I definitely wouldn't be as successful.
You know, if you meet someone for the first time, they're not going to bite you.
I'm proud of my Korean heritage, but I want people to know I'm American. It's not important to be the Korean Taylor Swift.
'Keeping Up with the Kardashians' is interesting, intriguing.
I think the goal is always to be both. I put more effort into the technical side of my riding, but style is very important nowadays.
I had to grow up a little fast.
Hopefully I get to do more than one Olympics in my lifetime.
To me, snowboarding is really an art form, and I think every athlete, every snowboarder has her own style, and that makes them stand out.
To me, the Olympics are very important, obviously, but it's not something that I'm gonna change everything for.
I was very shy. It was kind of scary to meet new people.
It's such an honor to just represent the U.S. in the country where my parents immigrated from, and just this whole process has been amazing, and this journey has been so fun and full of so many memories that I will hold on to for the rest of my life.
Just because I'm young doesn't mean I didn't work hard to get to where I am.
I definitely, when I was younger, struggled a little to understand my identity and who I wanted to be.
The one thing I learned is to just give everything a shot. You don't want to live in regret.
I'm a dragon.
I definitely have a lot of Korean-American fans, which is amazing.
Before I drop in, I tend to knock on my snowboard. You know how when you jinx yourself, they're like, 'Knock on wood.' My snowboard's wood, so in case I jinxed myself sometime in the past, I just knock on my board. It just makes me feel a lot more comfortable.
I just want to be that young girl from L.A. who snowboards and gets her nails done.
I'm always trying to respond to my Instagram direct messages, even if they're a little weird. I'll have a Q&A on Snapchat and talk to everyone.
I feel like I have this different opportunity that not a lot of athletes may have. It's the fact that I'm Korean-American, and the Olympics are going to be in Korea, but I'm also riding for the States. I feel like I got really lucky that it got all pieced together - my first Olympics, being in Korea where most of my family is.
Honestly, I didn't like snowboarding when I was a little girl. As I got older, it became something I did with my dad. When I was 10, I knew I was good for my age, but I never felt that I was prodigy-level or anything like that.
Just going to the Olympics would be a dream come true. I could finish last, and it would still be an amazing experience.
I always have fun on the mountain, so it's always nice to go back out there and do what I love.
I moved to Switzerland when I was 8, and during our breaks, we'd go to snowboard, and he'd take me to the mountains; we'd take a train. It was kind of crazy, you know. When I think about it, I wake up at 4, take a train to the mountains, sleep in the train and then go snowboard, and then come back. It was quite a mission.
I was, like, talking to these kids, and I look up, and there was, like, 25 cameras around me. And I ran. I ran away. I, like, straight up ran away, and I was so scared, and then, like, it happened, and after I was done, it kinda sunk in.
I think my riding has hopefully gotten a lot better, but I'm always trying to push myself.
I had some social anxiety when I was younger because I wasn't surrounded by many people in my life.
It's a pretty crazy adrenaline rush because I feel like every run is different. You can never really expect anything. It's like a new adventure every time you drop into the pipe.
It's not like I was just dropped onto a snowboard and I was able to go 15 feet into the air. There was a lot of hard work that came with it. That's something that people don't really notice sometimes and the amount of sacrifice my family made.
I knock on my board to unjinx myself.
I think, you know, if you're young - even if you're old, it doesn't matter how old you are - but if you find something that you really want to try, just give it a try.
