Chloe Kim Wins the Gold for Korean-America

Super Proud

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Just a few days ago, young Korean-American Chloe Kim debuted onto the Winter Olympics and swept away the gold. She put all anxieties of her first olympic performance to rest with ease.

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Kim is a 4-times X Games gold medalist and actually was technically good enough to compete at Sochi but couldn’t… because she was 13. Needless to say, quite the audience has waited in anticipation of this year’s games 4 years later. Her halfpipe performance just last week kept the momentum going, performing brilliant 1080s to a flawless finish.

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To be honest, I watched her performance a few times and was really blown away. I was as proud as ever that a Korean-American had made it to the top. I can’t imagine it was fathomable for her parents when they brought her over from Korea to California her infancy that she would eventually come to dominate a global winter sport. In the most cheesy way possible, it makes me really proud that the US is the country that it is, strengthened by diversity and allowing those in need of refuge to find opportunity on American soil.

South Korean Media Stumbles Over Itself

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For everyone reading this, I will say one thing that Koreans know very well - the champion Chloe Kim would never have become who she is if she had grown up in Korea. I don’t mean this to be an insult to the country and culture I hold great pride in. Instead, I mean to clarify a few things for the millions of Koreans who are shocked that a teenager could even be in that scenario. In the wake of Kim’s victory, Korean media was running in circles, not sure how to frame this all.

The confusion mostly stems from what exactly to call and treat Chloe in this context. The media has become much more accustomed to calling her an American “gyopo” or foreign citizen but they’re still trying to figure out how she fits into the narrative of Korean society.

There are of course the obvious things that would’ve prevented Kim from being a world champion if she had grown up in Korea itself. Winter sports aren’t quite possible due to the lack of popularity and infrastructure in the small country. The biggest amusement park is comparable to a big state fair in the US and nothing more.

But there are the major social components blocking both Chloe Kim-types from reaching these pinnacles and their respective parents from even nurturing such a career for their children. These include the general dissuasion of non-academic career fields and interest, the lesser social value of sports players, and even on the parental level, the inability to dedicate one’s life (not money or time) to their children.

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It’s easy to make this whole post about Chloe’s rise to fame as a Korean immigrant, a story that would have been fractionally possible in her ‘native’ country, but I want to take a moment to highlight the incredible feat of her parents and especially her father. Chloe grew up with the implicit benefits of a plural society, allowing her to deviate from norms of academia and professionalism that are so hegemonic in South Korea. Even more incredible however, was her father’s deconstruction of working-dad expectations. Early on her life, he quit his job and spent 100% of his shuttling her to training and competitions. This is unfathomable in Korean society, for a family man to give up a corporate life. He was an absolute shoulder for her to stand upon, and for this I salute Jong Jin Kim.

This is why the mystery of how people like Chloe Kim are formed is not so black and white. It truly takes a village and for Korea to push their athletes or whatever professionals into ultimate success, it’ll take more than just a new after-school program or new halfpipe nearby.

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My 2 cents for the day. Congrats to the Kim family and for everyone reading, Steem on!