Chloe Kim, American snowboarder
Credit: © Cameron Spencer, Getty Images

March is Women’s History Month, an annual observance of women’s achievements and contributions to society. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature woman pioneers in a variety of areas.

Chloe Kim brought home the gold medal in the women’s halfpipe snowboarding event at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games held in Beijing, China. The halfpipe is an acrobatic event performed in a deep trough. Kim also won the gold medal in the women’s halfpipe event at the 2018 Winter Olympics held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. In Pyeongchang, she became the youngest woman to win a snowboarding gold medal in the Winter Olympics. In Beijing, Kim became the first woman to win multiple Olympic golds in the women’s halfpipe snowboarding event.

Kim won the snowboarding gold medal in the women’s halfpipe competition during the 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Credit: © Leonard Zhukovsky, Shutterstock

Kim has also gained international success in slopestyle events. In slopestyle, competitors perform on special courses that feature various obstacles. Kim was too young to compete in the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. However, at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway, she won gold medals in both the halfpipe and slopestyle. She thus became the first American woman to win a snowboarding gold medal at the Youth Olympic competition.

Kim had previously earned international recognition for her performances in the X Games, an action sports competition held in the summer and winter and modeled on the Olympics. She won a silver medal in the superpipe, a variation of the halfpipe, at the 2014 Winter X Games. In 2015 and 2016, she won three X Games gold medals in the superpipe. In 2016, Kim became the first female to score a perfect 100 in the superpipe at the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix. She won the gold medal in the superpipe at the X Games again in 2018, 2019, and 2021.

Kim was born on April 23, 2000, in Long Beach, California. Her parents had immigrated to the United States from South Korea. Kim began snowboarding at the age of 4 and began competing as a member of Team Mountain High in California at the age of 6. She trained in Switzerland from the ages of 8 to 10 and then returned to the United States. In the fall of 2019, Kim enrolled at Princeton University, in New Jersey. She took a leave of absence from her studies in 2020 to concentrate on snowboarding.

February 27, 2018

Two days ago on Sunday, February 25, the Winter Olympic Games closed in South Korea after featuring more events than any previous winter games—102 to be exact. Four new events were introduced: a mixed team event for alpine skiing, curling mixed doubles, snowboarding’s big air, and a mass start for speed skating. Norwegians showed the rest of the world their prowess with 39 medals, and they tied Germany for the most gold medals (14). Germany had 31 total medals, Canada was third with 29, and the United States was fourth with 23.

U.S. snowboarder Chloe Kim celebrates victory in the women’s snowboard halfpipe at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Credit: © Leonard Zhukovsky, Shutterstock

The United States earned unexpected gold medals in women’s hockey, women’s cross-country skiing, and men’s curling. The women earned Team USA’s first Olympic gold medal in hockey in 20 years by beating the dominant Canadian team in a shoot-out. Cross-country skiers Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall became the first American women to ever medal in their discipline, much less to take home the gold in the team sprint freestyle event. The men’s curling team brought the United States its first curling Olympic gold medal.

Alpine skiing had everyone’s attention with U.S. ladies Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn. Shiffrin won a gold in the women’s giant slalom and took home a silver in the women’s combined. Vonn missed the podium on the Super-G but came back for a bronze in the downhill event, making her the oldest woman (at age 33) to medal in alpine skiing at the winter games. Team USA’s Nick Goepper earned a silver in men’s freestyle skiing in the slopestyle event. In an exciting bobsled final run, the two-woman U.S. team Lauren Gibbs and Elana Meyers Taylor finished second for the silver. John Henry Krueger earned his silver in short-track speed-skating in the men’s 1000-meter race, the first individual U.S. speed skating medal in 8 years. U.S. freestyle skier Brita Sigourney brought home bronze in the women’s halfpipe.

The symbol ‘ㅍ’ represents the first consonant of the first syllable of PyeongChang in the Korean alphabet, Hangeul, and expresses the harmony of Heaven, Earth and Man. ‘ㅊ’ depicts the first Korean consonant of the second syllable of PyeongChang in Hangeul, and represents snow, ice, and winter sports stars (athletes). Credit: © Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018

Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjoergen became the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time at Pyeongchang. Ladies figure skating rivals and teammates Alina Zagitova and Yevgenia Medvedeva battled for the gold. Both skaters are Olympic Athletes from Russia. Medvedeva had been undefeated in competition from November 2015 until January 2018. She broke her own world record with two captivating Olympic performances, only to have it broken minutes later by Zagitova. Medvedeva won the silver, and Zagitova took the gold in a scarlet tutu.