What were you doing at 14? Other than fighting acne and asking your mom to pack you a sandwich for the hill? Bet you weren’t stomping 9s.
Mammoth local Chloe Kim made history on Saturday in the Women’s Snowboard SuperPipe event, becoming the youngest athlete to win an Winter X Games gold medal… ever. She defeated reigning champion, Kelly Clark, who took silver. However, Clark also set a record while trying to keep up the youngster: on her first run, which scored for 90.00, she set record for the highest amplitude in Women’s Snowboard SuperPipe history at X Games Aspen, reaching an astonishing 16 feet 11 inches. Aussie Torah Bright finished with the third spot and a bronze medal.
Chloe’s learning curve is downright scary. Even though she has only been competing professionally for a few seasons now, she has quickly given female snowboarding a face for the future. And what might even more impressive is her willpower — left battered and bruised from a heavy crash into the icy 22-foot walls during the last day of practice runs, the teen dug deep and found both the mental and physical strength to overcome any jitters and quite literally rise to the occasion.
“My face hurts,” Kim admitted after receiving her gold medal.
Her face might have hurt, but her performance showed no signs of limitations. She pushed through the untimely injury and brought her A-game to the final. The winning run included a switch method cab 900, switchback 720, and McTwist before finishing with another steezy front 9.
The future holds no bounds for where Chloe Kim and the next generation of snowboarding professionals (women and men alike) can push the sport. We’re ready, even if that means bugging mom for rides to the playground.
