There’s a particular kind of pressure that comes with being exceptional early.

ㅤ

When you become the standard, it’s easy for people so stop seeing the climb. They only see the height.

ㅤ

That’s the space Chloe Kim has occupied for nearly a decade. Since she was a teenager, she has defined an entire sport. And her résumé reads like a study in progression.

ㅤ

She became the youngest woman ever to win Olympic gold in snowboard halfpipe. She was the first woman to land back-to-back 1080s in Olympic competition. She collected X Games gold medals at an age when most athletes are still introducing themselves. She stepped away to prioritize her mental health and returned to defend her Olympic title, something only the rarest competitors manage to do in a sport that evolves as quickly as this one.

ㅤ

Each of those milestones fundamentally expanded the sport.

ㅤ

And now, with a third Olympic medal, she’s done something equally rare: she’s sustained relevance and excellence across three Olympic cycles in one of the most technically progressive disciplines in winter sports. In halfpipe, the bar is always rising. Chloe has risen with it.

ㅤ

Following her competition in Milan, what stayed with me most wasn’t the finish.

ㅤ

It was the image of Chloe running to her protégé, Korea's Choi Gaon, after she won gold. Arms open, pride unmistakable.

ㅤ

In elite sports, we often talk about legacy as something you leave behind. It’s more than that; It’s what you build that continues after you. It’s creating a world where the next athlete doesn’t just dream of following you, they expect to surpass you. That hug was a legacy happening in real time. The path doesn’t narrow when more women succeed. Rather, it widens.

ㅤ

For many Asian American girls, Chloe’s presence on the Olympic stage has never been just about medals. Winter sports have not historically reflected them. Sports media hasn’t either.

ㅤ

Chloe changed that. She competes with precision and power, but she’s also been vulnerable. She has spoken candidly about pressure and mental health. She’s defended immigrant communities, expressing deep gratitude for her own South Korean immigrant parents. She has shown that you can be dominant without being one-dimensional.

ㅤ

She is representation defined, existing so fully that it reshapes expectation and shifts culture for the better.  

ㅤ

When we co-founded TOGETHXR with Chloe, it was because we were tired of narratives that flattened women’s greatness. We were tired of coverage that measured women against impossibly narrow social constructs, and definitions of dominance. We were tired of stories that focused on what women didn’t do instead of what they built. What they accomplished. What they represented.

ㅤ

TOGETHXR was rooted in a belief that women athletes deserve narratives that match the depth of their impact. Chloe embodies that belief.

ㅤ

She has won at the highest level. She has stepped back and returned. She has mentored the next generation. She has invested in building platforms that ensure women athletes can tell their own stories.

ㅤ

Chloe’s career is not a story of almost, or having “come up short.” It is a story of achievement, resilience, reinvention, and responsibility. 

ㅤ

Chloe built something far more enduring than a medal count. She built a standard.