Chloe Kim Refused To Skip Snowboard Training Amidst A Horrific Snowstorm -“It Blew Me Away”, Says Coach

The Beijing Winter Olympics are now in full swing; and so are Chloe Kim’s preparations. The US athlete has undertaken serious work on her skills for her upcoming event. Even going as far as practicing without full clearance from her instructors on a day when it snowed in.

An athlete is sometimes required to make the hard calls to practice where no one would and to prepare when no one did. And Kim seems to have undertaken that assignment. In her training for the 2022 winter Olympics, she practiced in the halfpipe while fresh snow continued to fall from the clouds.

Kim, already having been written into history at the Pyeongchang event for her back-to-back 1080s, could have played it safe in her preparation for the Olympics. These do come about only every 4 years sitting one out because of injuries sustained in a risked practice could come back to haunt athletes. But as they say, no guts, no glory. And Kim showed every bit of that resolve when she took to practicing in the halfpipe in late January this year.

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Chloe Kim in the snowstorm

Reportedly, one night in late January, a passing snowstorm in Switzerland blew almost half a foot of snow into the halfpipe. For many athletes, this would’ve meant canceling the session until the groomer cut the snow in the pipe; Rick Bower, coach of the US Halfpipe team said as much, “Pretty much anybody that I?ve ever worked with would have gone in on that day.”

But Olympian Gold Medallists are there for a reason. They have the gene to push past the barrier mentally and physically. To try that one trick they have up their sleeve irrespective of whether it snows or does not. To exemplify the Olympian motto, “Citius Altius Fortius”, “Swifter, Higher, Stronger”.

Kim spent two hours slipping the pipe that day. In tow were coach Bower and her physical therapist and boyfriend, Evan Berle. It continued to snow even while Kim was out for her practice. Bower, as coach reportedly thought the practice was worthless. And he probably had good reason to. The snowfall had made it so that Kim caught an edge during a run because of the transition from ice to snow in the halfpipe. But that’s where champions are made.

??That?s the mental toughness component. It blew me away,? added Bower. Kim rode the halfpipe for about 90 minutes, lapping the pipe by herself in the snow. And Bower even believes that practicing in tougher conditions made her improve the trick. Because when Kim walked out to perform on a sunny day, she’d retained what she learned.

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?It all came together on that snowy day.?,?said Bower to close out the whole episode.