Chloe Kim

Chloe Kim became an Olympic champion at age 17 at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games, scoring a perfect 98.25 on her first run in the halfpipe final — a run so dominant that she did backflips on the remaining runs to keep warm. She repeated as Olympic champion at the 2022 Beijing Games, this time landing the 1080 — a trick she had been withholding — to defend her title in a performance that left peers speechless. Between Olympics, she took a gap year at Princeton, citing burnout and anxiety, returning to competition without losing a step. Her story is not just one of athletic dominance but of a young athlete navigating the psychological pressures of early stardom and Asian-American identity in a predominantly white sport, emerging more grounded and articulate than when she left. Kim's halfpipe riding in 2026 features rotation and amplitude that other women on tour are still years from matching. Her Toyota and Mammoth Mountain partnerships make her one of the most marketable action athletes on the planet.