(ATR) Her gold medal was already assured, but Chloe Kim said she needed to be proud of herself for her final run.
After two straight 1080s, a first in an Olympic final, Kim emphatically stated her dominance in the PyeongChang 2018 women’s halfpipe, posting a score of 98.25. Already a household name in South Korea because of her heritage, Kim made a statement in front of her extended family, some of whom traveled from Seoul to watch her.
And for any South Koreans who have avoided the ubiquitous coverage of her? Well, now they will know of her feats.
"Going into my third run I was taking home the gold, which is a very insane feeling I can’t even explain right now. But I just knew I wasn’t going to be completely satisfied taking home the gold and knowing I could have done better," Kim said to reporters after her victory. "I think the third run was just for me and to show myself that I could do it, and I could put down the best run I could do."
Her father Jong Jin Kim emigrated from Korea in the early 1980s to California and introduced Chloe to snowboarding at age four. Chloe Kim said in her press conference that she doesn’t know if she could ever make the sacrifices her father made "chasing after this dream with your kid" but is thankful for everything he’s done.
Jong Jin was in attendance to watch Kim’s runs along with his wife and Chloe’s grandmother Jung Ae Moon. Three cousins and aunts also made the trip to watch Chloe’s gold medal performance.
"She’s put snowboarding on the map [here]," Kane Mason, an Australian who lives in South Korea, toldAround the Rings.
Mason said he’s been skiing and snowboarding at the slopes in the area of the PyeongChang 2018 Phoenix Park for the last decade. He was attending the snowboard halfpipe with his wife Jeonghyang Sung. He says that when he comes to ski in the area, around 60 percent of the people here are snowboarding instead of skiing.
"I’m just happy to be here and see the crowds of people and excitement," Sung said to ATR. "I have heard of [Chloe] and I thought she’s a Korean, so now it’s big in the Korean news! We are inspired by her and I’m really proud of her."
The spectator stands of the halfpipe venue featured an abundance of American flags, along with banners that unfurled to say "Go Chloe Kim!" One of her family members had a large banner that said "I Love you Chloe" in Korean featuring her silhouette on a snowboard.
In between Kim’s runs, her grandmother told ATR that she’s "so thankful" to see her granddaughter’s success and was finally watching her live for the first time. Moon said she brings newspaper clippings of her granddaughter to show all her friends about her "famous" relative.
"Everyone is really excited, and [at times] I couldn’t sleep because everyone is calling me," Moon said. "[After the Games] we are going to go eat rice cake soup for the Lunar New Year."
Kim said that she found out her grandmother made it to her event in between her second and third runs. The attention she’s been getting has been noticeable too, with Kim saying "my Twitter has been blowing up", ever since tweeting in between runs during qualifying.
"My grandma has never seen me compete before so... I hope she enjoyed watching it," Kim said. "I can’t wait to go shopping with her!"
It wasn’t just the American fans there to root for Kim, she had the entire weight of the home spectators as well. Fans could be seen wearing Korean flags to the venue, even though no South Koreans made the women’s halfpipe final.
"When she came to Korea a lot of newspapers and broadcasts [started] reporting on her," Lee Taedong, a writer for the Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s largest newspaper, told ATR. "Actually snowboarding is not very famous in Korea. So I think many people like her because she has Korean parents, but is a snowboarder."
Ki Jung Kim was one of the people in South Korea that had not heard of Kim before the 2018 Olympics. After hearing her story, he bought tickets to the event to bring his whole family, since the event would be fun for his young son. Kim likened the craze around Chloe Kim to the recent story of Chung Hyeon, who made a surprise run to the semifinals of the Australian Open in tennis.
"I want my kid to experience world events, [so we came here]" Kim said to ATR. "I think he first saw the halfpipe today, not on TV before! Two weeks ago, after [Hyeong], my son played tennis. Maybe after this one he will pay more attention to winter sports."
Written by Aaron Bauerin Bokwang
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