Glasgow Celebrates AAPI Heritage Month by Spotlighting Chloe Kim
This month, we are celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month to acknowledge the efforts and cultural contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to the United States. Because of that, we are honoring Chloe Kim, an Olympic snowboarding champion.
If you’ve never heard of Chloe Kim, you’ve been living under a rock! This accomplished athlete was born on April 23, 2000 in Long Beach, California to South Korean immigrants. She began snowboarding when she was four years old, alongside her father. Despite being novices to the sport, her father recognized her potential and quit his job as an engineer to be able to drive her to practice and travel with her to competitions. She even had the chance to train in Geneva, Switzerland!
By age 13, she was competing professionally. Chloe tried to enter the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, but she was too young to participate. Insistent that she compete, Chloe entered in the 2014 Winter X Games, an extreme sports event, and won a silver medal. In 2015, the snowboarder won a gold medal in the superpipe at the Winter X Games. With this victory, she became the youngest gold medalist. She entered once again in the 2016 Winter X Games, only to become the first person under 16 to receive two gold medals. At the 2016 U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix, she became the first woman to land back-to-back 1080 spins and gained a perfect 100 points.
Chloe competed at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics, becoming the first American woman to win gold in snowboarding and received the highest snowboarding score in history of the Youth Olympics. In 2018, her wish to compete at the Olympics finally came true when she arrived at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Chloe won a gold medal in the Women’s Halfpipe Finals, becoming the youngest woman to win a gold medal in the halfpipe and the youngest woman to ever land two back-to-back spins at the Olympics. This new record got her a spot on Time magazine’s Time 100 list.
Chloe became a two-time Olympic athlete when she competed at her second Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. She entered the Women’s Halfpipe event and successfully secured her title, becoming the first female snowboarder to win two gold medals for the halfpipe.
Chloe Kim is important to our Glasgow community because she is just one example of the influence and achievements that many generations of AAPI have made to American history and society. She is showcasing a new face in the representation of Asian Americans in the United States and continues to do so, doing what she loves. Chloe is a role model not only for young Asian Americans and girls; she is a role model for all Gen Z’s. Her persistence and hard work influences and moves many of Glasgow students.
Want to learn more about Chloe Kim? Check these out:
Angelika Tzioumis (she/her) is an 8th grader at Glasgow Middle School. She is very multicultural, having lived in Greece for 1.5 years and being half-Greek, half-Korean. She was born in Arlington, but currently lives in Falls Church. Outside of school, she enjoys practicing the violin and the piano 40 hours a day, reading, baking, playing trivia games, and spending time outdoors with her family. Angelika is also interested in biology and astronomy. She has an odd fear of whales and boats, specifically cruise ships, and has traveled to Greece, France, Austria, South Korea, and some states.
