Chloe Kim
I've flown from Aspen and then to Switzerland the next day and then off again the day after. That's the thing I love most about snowboarding, honestly - getting to travel and explore different places and meet people.
I didn't get a normal school life, and my sisters have told me so many fun stories about college, so I'm just so excited.
I don't like doing the same runs. I like to mix it up a lot.
When I first started snowboarding, my dad pretty much dragged me into it. I wasn't old enough to be like, 'Oh, I wanna snowboard!' you know?
I always want to do the best I can.
I'm always working hard.
I think, you know, if you're young - even if you're old, it doesn't matter how old you are - but if you find something that you really want to try, just give it a try.
I try not to feel pressure, because I feel like it kind of throws you off. I always try to focus on myself. But it does kind of creep into the back of my mind.
I knock on my board to unjinx myself.
I definitely, when I was younger, struggled a little to understand my identity and who I wanted to be.
Four is actually my lucky number.
It's not like I was just dropped onto a snowboard and I was able to go 15 feet into the air. There was a lot of hard work that came with it. That's something that people don't really notice sometimes and the amount of sacrifice my family made.
My dad is a very determined person.
It's a pretty crazy adrenaline rush because I feel like every run is different. You can never really expect anything. It's like a new adventure every time you drop into the pipe.
It's such an honor to just represent the U.S. in the country where my parents immigrated from, and just this whole process has been amazing, and this journey has been so fun and full of so many memories that I will hold on to for the rest of my life.
It's hard to describe my style. People will tell me that I'm really flowy.
I had some social anxiety when I was younger because I wasn't surrounded by many people in my life.
I was very shy. It was kind of scary to meet new people.
I don't snowboard to win everything. I do it because I love it. I do it because I have fun, and everyone else can think whatever they want. For me, it's all about fun, and I enjoy it so much.
I think my riding has hopefully gotten a lot better, but I'm always trying to push myself.
To me, the Olympics are very important, obviously, but it's not something that I'm gonna change everything for.
I think I've started to have a lot more fun around snowboarding, even going out of the halfpipe and going to hit some jumps or getting some 'pow.' That definitely made it a lot more fun to me, just adding that much positivity into snowboarding.
I was, like, talking to these kids, and I look up, and there was, like, 25 cameras around me. And I ran. I ran away. I, like, straight up ran away, and I was so scared, and then, like, it happened, and after I was done, it kinda sunk in.
I did my first contest, and I got third, and my dad was, like, 'Wow, she has potential.' And I went back when I was 7, and I won. And my dad's like, 'All right,' and then he dropped everything.
I moved to Switzerland when I was 8, and during our breaks, we'd go to snowboard, and he'd take me to the mountains; we'd take a train. It was kind of crazy, you know. When I think about it, I wake up at 4, take a train to the mountains, sleep in the train and then go snowboard, and then come back. It was quite a mission.
Hopefully I get to do more than one Olympics in my lifetime.
Luckily for me, snowboarding doesn't really feel like work unless I'm actually doing stuff that's, like, work-ish, but when I'm just snowboarding, I'm having so much fun.
I always have fun on the mountain, so it's always nice to go back out there and do what I love.
I had to grow up a little fast.
If I had a message to give my dad, it'd probably be, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you.' He's helped me so much on this crazy journey. Giving up his job, being away from my mom, and being away from home for that much just because of me? It's a lot. And I thank him for it.
Just going to the Olympics would be a dream come true. I could finish last, and it would still be an amazing experience.
I think the goal is always to be both. I put more effort into the technical side of my riding, but style is very important nowadays.
I just go into a contest looking to put down a good run. As long as I feel like I've done what I came to do, and I'm happy with my riding, where I end up doesn't matter that much to me.
Honestly, I didn't like snowboarding when I was a little girl. As I got older, it became something I did with my dad. When I was 10, I knew I was good for my age, but I never felt that I was prodigy-level or anything like that.
'Keeping Up with the Kardashians' is interesting, intriguing.
Being in a class with kids, meeting new people, and borrowing notes from other students - I've never done that before. I've always had to fend for myself.
I feel like I have this different opportunity that not a lot of athletes may have. It's the fact that I'm Korean-American, and the Olympics are going to be in Korea, but I'm also riding for the States. I feel like I got really lucky that it got all pieced together - my first Olympics, being in Korea where most of my family is.
Snowboarding brought me out of my shell.
I'm always trying to respond to my Instagram direct messages, even if they're a little weird. I'll have a Q&A on Snapchat and talk to everyone.
You know, if you meet someone for the first time, they're not going to bite you.
Over the years, I've hurt my thumb, separated my shoulder, and injured my back, but not too bad. Actually, my back was hurt pretty bad. I had to take an ambulance and was in bed for a week.
I just want to be that young girl from L.A. who snowboards and gets her nails done.
My dad gave up his job; he stopped working - for me. Without that, I definitely wouldn't be as successful.
I love competing so much.
Before I drop in, I tend to knock on my snowboard. You know how when you jinx yourself, they're like, 'Knock on wood.' My snowboard's wood, so in case I jinxed myself sometime in the past, I just knock on my board. It just makes me feel a lot more comfortable.
My mom wouldn't let me dye my hair for the longest time.
I definitely have a lot of Korean-American fans, which is amazing.
I have two aunts and three cousins in Korea as well.