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Chloe Kim, Princeton student, finds college transition difficult

By OlympicTalkSep 9, 2019, 2:46 PM EDT
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Heimana Reynolds wins skateboard world title, nears an Olympic goal from age 10 Spain crushes Argentina for FIBA World Cup title Sky Brown, 11 years old, is third at world skateboarding championships ahead of Olympic debut

Chloe Kim‘s transition to Princeton student life has been difficult, especially in the dining hall, where she notices people staring and taking pictures of her.

“College is OK, I guess,” the 2018 Olympic snowboard halfpipe champion said in a video posted on social media on Friday. “I’m going to fill you in a bit. I don’t think a lot of people understand that I’m a legit student. I’m trying to study. And, like, I would really appreciate it if I had a comfortable space here, I guess, but I don’t.

“As soon as I go to the dining hall, people stare at me. They whisper. They take pictures of me without me knowing. I don’t like it. I don’t think anyone would like if you were just trying to have a meal and you see it. Like, I see that. I see it. I’m a human. It’s been really, really hard to transition, but hopefully it gets better. And if not, then, [sarcastic] yay. So to anyone that’s here at Princeton and sees me at the dining hall or anywhere, please just remember that I’m a human being and I want a true, fun college experience. I would just really appreciate it if everyone respected my privacy and let me live my life. So thank you.”

Kim, 19, announced a month after the Olympics that she was accepted to Princeton but deferred enrollment until this year. She is expected to juggle competing this Olympic cycle with classes.

“I’d love to live just a normal life there, where maybe people don’t recognize me and get to know me not because of what I do, but just because of me,” Kim said in February, according to The New York Times. “Anyone who is going to Princeton next year, just be cool.”

Kim, who in PyeongChang became the youngest Olympic halfpipe gold medalist, extended her dominance last season. She swept the Dew Tour, X Games and world championships before breaking her ankle and taking second at the season-ending Burton U.S. Open.

“Princeton was my dream school before snowboarding took off,” Kim said last winter, according to The Associated Press. “I just liked the name when I was really young and didn’t know about college or anything.”

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MORE: Shaun White says he’s going to world skateboarding championships

Shaun White says he’s going to world skateboarding championships

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By OlympicTalkJul 23, 2019, 8:29 AM EDT
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More: Olympics

Heimana Reynolds wins skateboard world title, nears an Olympic goal from age 10 Spain crushes Argentina for FIBA World Cup title Sky Brown, 11 years old, is third at world skateboarding championships ahead of Olympic debut

Shaun White says he’s going to the world skateboarding championships in Brazil in September as he contemplates whether to go for a Tokyo 2020 run in the new Olympic sport.

“I’ve been watching the competitions lately and got really inspired,” White said on TODAY on Tuesday, one year out from the Olympics. “I thought it would be amazing to go compete at the world championships in September. … First steps are first, see what happens [before an Olympic decision].”

White said last July that he would lighten his snowboard schedule as he returns to skateboarding competition.

White, 32, entered his first skateboard contest in years in September and called his performance “pretty terrible,” but not surprising given it was his first-ever bowl event.

White earned five X Games skateboard medals between 2005 and 2011, but all of those came in vert, which is not on the Olympic program.

“Honestly, I am here to see how things go,” White said at the September event in Marseille, according to Agence France-Presse. “I haven’t made a decision either way [on 2020], I just figured, want to have some fun, skateboard, come to France and then hopefully make a decision come new year if I’m really going to go for it or not.”

White hasn’t competed in snowboarding since the PyeongChang Olympics, his longest break in that sport.

White has said he would like to go for a fifth Winter Games in Beijing in 2022. He would be 35, older than any previous Olympic snowboarding champion. He’s already the oldest halfpipe medalist.

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MORE: Olympic medal forecaster has U.S. topping Tokyo 2020 standings

Chloe Kim wins halfpipe world title, attempts double

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By Rachel ThompsonFeb 8, 2019, 5:31 PM EDT
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There wasn’t much for Chloe Kim to add to her resume.

But at the World Championships in Park City, Utah, on Friday, the 18-year-old managed yet another milestone, adding a world title to a list of accolades that includes an Olympic gold medal and five X Games titles.

 

 

Kim clinched the title on her first run with a score of 93.50, leading the field by nearly 10 points. She upped the level of difficulty in her third run, attempting a frontside double cork 1080, but did not stay on her feet. China’s Cai Xuetong, the 2017 world champion, finished second, and American Maddie Mastro placed third for her first medal at the World Championships.

Despite her dominance over the rest of the field, Kim tends to focus more on progression than easy victory laps: at the Olympics, she had a gold medal secured with her first run score of 93.75, but put down an even more difficult third run – including back-to-back 1080s – to increase her score to 98.25.

Kim, who said she was “stoked” about her performance, spoke with NBC’s Tina Dixon after the competition about her attempt to land the double. In October, she became the first woman to do it in the halfpipe during training, but has not yet executed it in competition.

“I was really nervous,” she said. “[I] landed my first run super clean…[and] the second run was kind of a setup for the double. I think the next contest hopefully I’ll be able to do it. I’m stoked I tried it and glad I’m walking away in one piece.”

Kim, who dominated the field to win gold in PyeongChang, hasn’t lost a competition in over a year, winning the US Open to end last season and topping the field at the Dew Tour and the X Games earlier this season.

She plans to swap technical tricks for textbooks in the fall as part of the Princeton University Class of 2023.

PyeongChang bronze medalist Scotty James won the world title in men’s halfpipe. The Australian has continued to deliver since the Olympics, where he finished behind Shaun White and Ayumu Hirano: he won a second X Games title last month and defended his 2017 world title in Park City with a technical run that included two 1260s and his signature amplitude.

Japan’s Yuto Totsuka placed second, and Pat Burgener of Switzerland finished third. American Toby Miller, an 18-year-old from Mammoth Lakes, California, finished just off the podium in fourth.

Coverage of the World Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding Championships continues tonight with moguls, live at 9 p.m. on NBCSN.