‘I felt a little lost. I was ina pretty low, dark place.’Kim would have competed for the U.S. team at the 2014
Winter Olympics were it not for the minimum age require-
ment of 15. Four years later in PyeongChang, she more than
made up for lost time. Kim landed her back-to-back 1080s
in her final run, even though she had already clinched gold.
The win cemented Kim’s celebrity in two countries, and the
crowds in South Korea mobbed her whenever she left the
Olympic Village. When the family went out, Kim’s parents
and two sisters huddled around her to protect her from pry-
ing eyes. The crush of sponsor and media obligations left
just one night to actually celebrate her win with her South
Korean relatives. “The night before leaving Korea, we all
gathered at our home, and Chloe’s grandmother got to try
on the medal,” says Kim’s mother Boran. “We each got to
try it on. So we celebrated in that way. But at that moment,
I think Chloe was going through a very hard time.”