Chloe Kim would be one of the USA’s best medal hopes in Sochi if it wasn’t for one problem — at 13 she is not eligible to compete in the Winter Olympics.
With just weeks to go before the Sochi Games, American snowboarder Chloe Kim has consistently outscored her American teammates and Olympians Hannah Teter, Gretchen Bleiler and Elena Hight.
“I think I would be really nervous and pressured. I am glad I am not old enough, almost,” Kim told The New York Times.
Athletes had to be 15 by December 31, 2013 to qualify for the Olympics with begin February 7.
“She’s a special one,” American freestyle and snowboard coach Mike Jankowski told the newspaper. “I’ve never seen anyone like her.”
Kim now trains at Mammoth Mountain in California. She was born in Long Beach but nows lives in the Los Angeles suburb of La Palma.
Her parents are not disappointed she can’t go to Sochi.
“If they don’t have an age limit maybe the parents would push their kids too soon,” said her father Kim Jong-Jin, who emigrated to the US from South Korea.
Chloe Kim is instead looking forward to the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games in South Korea when she will be just 17 and where her South Korean heritage would make her one of the most watched and sought after athletes of those games.
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