How Chloe Kim Rediscovered Her Love Of Snowboarding

To see her beaming smile after putting down a perfect run, you’d never know that Chloe Kim—now inarguably the best women’s halfpipe snowboarder ever—almost quit the sport entirely.

Kim, who became America’s sweetheart at 17 when she won Olympic gold in 2018 and then again in 2022, transcends action sports.

She has graced the cover of Sports Illustrated. She walks red carpets. She’s been made into a Barbie doll. She has 1 million Instagram followers, and it’s a safe bet that most of them don’t know what a cab double cork 1080 is. They just love Kim’s bubbly personality, sassy confessionals on Stories and impeccable fashion sense.

Somewhere along the way, however, the 24-year-old—who started snowboarding when she was four years old, her innate talent so apparent that her father, Jong Jin, quit his job as an engineer at the time to become his daughter’s coach—lost sight of why she was doing it.

Two seasons ago, Kim’s snowboarding career was in a “rut,” she told me. More than a rut—she actively “dreaded doing it.” She thought she was done.

Over the last year, however, Kim started going to therapy and “getting her demons out.” What she learned: “A lot of it just stems from putting so much pressure on myself and having super high expectations and kind of only focusing on winning because I thought that’s the only thing that brought value to my life,” she said.

When she stopped caring about winning, she started having fun again. “And funny enough,” she said Thursday night, two days before going on to dominate women’s halfpipe at X Games Aspen, “now that I’m having fun, I think I’m riding the best I ever have.”

Case in point: at X Games, Kim earned her eighth X Games halfpipe gold medal, tying Shaun White’s record for most overall. She broke her tie with Kelly Clark to become the most decorated female halfpipe rider in X Games history.

Kim’s first of two final runs scored 93.33 to hold up for the win. It included the first double cork in X Games women’s halfpipe history.

Kim had become first woman to land a cab double cork 1080 at Switzerland’s Laax Open in mid-January.

ForbesChloe Kim, Maddie Mastro Progress Women’s Halfpipe With Historic Laax OpenBy Michelle Bruton

This shift in Kim’s perspective has been obvious all season.

At the U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain in December—her first competition back from an injury she suffered midway through the 2023-34 season—Kim was on fire, landing all of her runs in qualifying and all three of her runs in the final. That hasn’t happened for her in a long time, she said.

Following her first run, however—after she had successfully landed all her hits—Kim was trying to cut speed at the bottom of the halfpipe and ended up falling. She laughed it off—thinking her run was done—but the judges deemed the fall part of her run and docked her score. She landed her two remaining runs but finished just off the podium in fourth.

A few years ago, Kim says, that situation might have shaken her—might have been difficult to move past.

Not now.

“I’ve been going through a lot of mental transitions right now, and it’s been really helping me for the better and being able to stay optimistic amongst all the stress,” Kim said. “As I processed it and sat with my emotions, I concluded that I actually didn’t really care and it didn’t matter. I was really happy that I landed all three of my runs…. I think that just gave me such a big boost of confidence.”

It was clear to see just how unfazed Kim when she landed her cab double cork 1080 at the Laax Open in Switzerland—an NBD, or never-been-done trick.

Not many snowboarders have the opportunity to compare the feeling of winning gold and putting down an NBD at the same event, but Kim’s not like most snowboarders.

“I actually think an NBD means more than the result to me,” Kim said. “I think that learning a trick, being consistent with it in training is so different than actually putting it down in a competition when all the pressure’s on and the nerves are high. So I think if you’re able to land it in a contest it’s just true mastery, and being able to achieve something like that, especially when it’s a trick that you once thought was impossible for you, is the best feeling.”

Kim’s renewed love of snowboarding comes at a time when halfpipe seems to be recalibrating from the emphasis on rotations that has dominated in recent years, with everyone trying to add one if not two 1080s into their routines—largely to keep up with Kim.

Kim herself landed the first 1260 in women’s halfpipe at X Games Aspen 2024—but it’s challenging herself in other ways, namely making her runs more stylish, that’s currently filling Kim’s cup.

“I like switching it up and I like that different grabs make different spins look a certain way, and that’s so much more rewarding to me,” Kim said. “But for other riders, spinning more is more important to them and that’s totally up to them, and that’s awesome. I can keep up with the rotations and I can do all these spins, but doing a slow back 3 nose grab into a switch method just felt more fun to me in that moment in time.”

Next up for Kim is the U.S. Grand Prix later this week—also in Aspen, which represents another valuable opportunity to earn points toward qualifying for Milano Cortina 2026.

At one point, Kim thought that the Beijing 2022 Olympics—where she won gold but where ceremonies were limited due to Covid and no friends, family or fans could watch her compete—would be her final Games.

“And then I was like, ‘No, it can’t be like that,’” Kim said.

Kim took a 22-month break from competitive snowboarding from 2019 to 2021. She also took a reset during the 2022-23 season after winning gold in Beijing.

Some sponsors might have chosen to part ways with an athlete during those periods of hiatus. Kim, who changed board sponsors from Burton to Roxy in 2019 and has been with longtime sponsor Monster Energy for 11 years, is grateful that her support system has allowed for her to chart her career the way she needs to.

“Monster saw my potential even when I didn’t,” Kim said. “They get all the flowers.”

Off the snow, believe it or not, Kim may be even busier than she is on it. She’s not able to discuss most of the projects she’s working on now, though she was able to share she’s working on building a brand and she’s filming.

“I think maybe growing up in Southern California and just being surrounded by so many talented people in different fields of work, it made me see that there are a lot of other things I’m interested in and a lot of other things I’m passionate about,” Kim said.

“And you only live once, so why not do all the things you can?”