Chloe Kim competes in the women's halfpipe snowboarding final at the 2019 FIS Snowboard, Freestyle Ski and Freeski World Championships on Feb. 8, 2019 in Park City, Utah.
PARK CITY, Utah -- Chloe Kim is never talking about snacks again.
The queen of the halfpipe made that abundantly clear after her latest win Friday afternoon at the FIS Snowboard, Freestyle Ski and Freeski World Championships.
“After the Olympics I just didn’t really like snacking anymore, people just went overboard with it,” Kim said, deadpan, referring to the Tweets about churros, ice cream and breakfast sandwiches that contributed to her status as a household name during the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.
“I got a bunch of churros sent from a churro company, a bunch of ice cream from every ice cream brand out there. It was a lot. My mom was pretty annoyed because our freezer would get filled up real fast. I appreciate it, but no need to send me anymore snacks. I will never say I’m craving something again.”
She would rather talk about how she is progressing the sport of snowboarding, evidenced by the world title she claimed at Park City Mountain to complete her claim on every major title in the sport.
Competing at her first world championships, Kim continued a dominant season when she scored a 93.50 on her first of three runs that held up for gold through the entire contest. Three-time Olympian Xuetong Cai of China earned silver with an 84.00 on her first run, while American Maddie Mastro took bronze with an 82.00 from her third run.
“It feels really good,” Kim said on completing her collection of wins. “I was really stoked on the way I was able to ride today, so I think that’s the best feeling of all, and winning here is just that much better. My first world champs, so it was fun.”
Mastro finished sixth at the 2017 world championships and 12th at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, so she was pleased to reach the podium at such a global event.
“It’s been pretty cool. I went to the last world championships two years ago and I made finals, it didn’t really go my way, so it’s great to come back and have some redemption in that way,” Mastro said.
Kim and Mastro, fellow 2018 Olympians and longtime competitors, marked the first time in 23 years that two Americans stood on the women’s halfpipe snowboarding world championship podium, though that stat is not a true reflection of the depth of U.S. women’s riders as two Americans have stood on every Olympic podium for the past four Games, dating back to 2006.
Kim has long been highlighting the present and future of that depth.
Her resume as snowboarding queen and, as some already call her, the G.O.A.T (greatest of all time) already included one Olympic gold medal, two Youth Olympic golds, five X Games golds, three U.S. Open golds and seven world cup wins, and she has now added a world championship gold to that list.
It is a foregone conclusion for many of Kim’s competitors that the American teen will likely win each contest.
Cai, the two-time reigning world champion entering this week, noted that finishing second to Kim is, “pretty much the best day for me.”
“Everybody knows Chloe is the boss, so I’m just happy I got second,” she added.
The fact that Kim is the reigning champion at each of those events possible is an unmatched feat.
Even more impressive is the fact that she is only 18 years old.
At just 13 years of age Kim was a strong contender for the 2014 U.S. Olympic Team but was kept off the team for one major reason: she was too young. Two years later Kim made her debut on the Olympic stage when she won golds in both halfpipe and slopestyle at the Winter Youth Olympic Games Lillehammer 2016.
Those wins were part of an eight-win streak that went from Feb. 6, 2016 to Jan. 21, 2017. While she has continued to have victories, it took two years for Kim to match that string of success.
Her worlds victory marked her eighth straight win since Jan. 27, 2018, matching her previous streak. The next opportunity for Kim to extend the streak comes Feb. 25-March 2 at the U.S. Open in Vail, Colorado, but the world champion isn’t focused on that.
“I wouldn’t say winning is always the big goal. I always want to push myself and do different runs, land different tricks, so as long as I get to do that I’m pretty stoked,” Kim said. “It’s just about pushing myself and progressing the sport.”
Come next fall, she will be progressing her education as well. Shortly after the 2018 Olympics Kim was accepted to Princeton University as part of the class of 2022. She deferred a year and will begin in August.
“I’m just going in pretty blind,” she said of her upcoming college experience. “It should be fun though. I’m excited to sit down in an actual classroom – I think the last time I did that was seventh grade – so it’s going to be pretty sick, and I’m hoping to meet new people… People say college is the highlight of their lives, so I’m hoping that’s the same for me.”
