Chloe Kim Avoids the Pitfalls of Pressure in Beijing–
The 21-year-old deftly brushed off the weight of expectations that has crushed countless stars at the Olympics. But it wasn’t as easy as it looked.
The following written content by MICHAEL ROSENBERG
ZHANGJIAKOU, China – She had crushed it and she knew it, and when the judges confirmed it, she slammed her hand down and said, “What a run! What a —ing run!” And that is how Queralt Castellet celebrated winning the non-Chloe Kim division of the snowboard halfpipe.
Kim won her second straight gold medal, and in a purely competitive sense, it came just as easily as the first. The first of Kim’s three runs in the final, her “safety run,” earned a 94 score. Nobody else would reach 91. Kim’s gold was perhaps the most predictable of the entire Olympics. But it did not feel that way to her.
“Last night, I was laying in bed thinking about today—all night,” Kim said afterward. “And that really messes with me sometimes.”
The girl who blew away the field and charmed millions in Pyeongchang is 21 now. Six of the other 11 halfpipe finalists here are younger than she is. In Korea, Kim was the charismatic fresh face entertaining everybody in sight in her ancestral home. Now that describes her friend Eileen Gu, who walked around Genting Snow Park watching Kim, then hugged her when she won.
Kim has had to navigate stardom and high expectations, and not just in her sport. These days people expect a young Asian-American star to voice opinions on a variety of topics, from anti-Asian rhetoric to mental health, and it’s a lot to bear. Kim, who took a year off from competition between Olympics, has handled it about as well as anybody could hope.
Still, for an athlete of her caliber, there is always the lingering feeling that everything is built on the foundation of dominance. The problem with making this look easy is that people think it really is. During her preparation, Kim struggled to look like Chloe Kim.
“I had the worst practice ever,” she said. “Like, I probably landed my run twice, when I’m used to landing it eight times, normally. And so that kind of puts you in a weird headspace.” Read more from S.I.
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