Chloe Kim will compete Wednesday night in the finals of the snowboarding halfpipe at the Beijing Olympics.
She qualified with a score of 87.75 despite falling on her second run. It didn’t matter because her score on her first try was enough.
“I just wanted to mess around, try something I’ve never really done before so I’m surprised I made it that far, said Kim about her second run. “But year, I’m stoked.” she said to NBC.
Kim’s defense of her gold medal at the 2018 games comes after the depression the then 17 year old felt after coming down from the highs of the Olympics.
She remembered the stares she received when she just went into a deli to get a sandwich and recalled running away in a panic.
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“The minute I come home, I can’t even go to my goddamn favorite place,” Kim said to Time. “It makes you angry. I just wanted a day where I was left alone. And it’s impossible. And I appreciate that everyone loves and supports me, but I just wish people could understand what I was going through up to that point. Everyone was like, ‘I just met her, and she’s such a bitch.’ I’m not a bitch. I just had the most exhausting two months of my life, and the minute I get home I’m getting hassled. I just want to get my f-cking ham and cheese sandwich and go.”
She ended up taking a year away from snowboarding after breaking her ankle in 2019. She spent part of that time appearing as a mystery guest on The Masked Singer.
“My parents actually were obsessed with the Korean version of the show, so that’s where it kind of started,” Kim said to Entertainment Weekly, according to NBC Olympics. “I was so incredibly nervous. With the Olympics, I kind of knew what to expect, but with this, I had no idea.”
While Kim knows any hopes of a singing career will have to wait, she also understands people like her voice. She doesn’t rule anything out.
“I know now that people like my voice,” Kim said. “So I won’t be too shy to put something out.”
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