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Youngest X Games Champion

Winter X Games kim_byuh.jpg

As Chloe Kim spun her snowboard to a stop at the bottom of the superpipe in Aspen, Colo., the 14-year-old girl made X Games history as the youngest person to win a gold medal, said AP. She won gold in the Women’s Snowboard SuperPipe, scoring higher than champion Kelly Clark, who has repeatedly won the X Games and was the gold medalist in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. Clark said of Kim, “In years to come, I’ll be able to look at women’s snowboarding and know that not only is it in good hands, but also it’s in the hands of someone I’m proud of,” according to APKim has been snowboarding since she was only 4 years old, reported USA Today. After learning to board, coaches noticed her potential and recruited her for their teams. As she began to show more talent, she took snowboarding more seriously and trained in Switzerland. The ninth grader began to compete in events advanced for her age. Despite her flourishing snowboarding career, she still attends school and takes online classes as she trains, USA Today reported.David Porter, chairman of BYU-Hawaii’s Exercise Sports and Science Dept., said it is “remarkable for someone so young to achieve so much” and that Kim can be a great example for students on campus. “I’m inspired by the proper training,” commented Shane Dyer, a senior from Oregon and an exercise and sports science major. “She had coaches that did it right and trained her right.”The previous year, when Kim was only 13 years old, she won silver in the SuperPipe and qualified to go to the Olympics in Sochi, Russia. However, her youth disqualified her from the competition, as a person must be 16 years old to be eligible to compete in the Olympic snowboarding. She will be 17 years old for the 2018 Winter Olympics, which will be held in the country of her parents’ birth: South Korea, said USA Today. Students agreed that Kim could influence any students to work hard. “I’m glad a local Californian like myself is doing that kind of stuff. She can inspire people my age and older to step up,” said Justin Silva, a junior in English.Uploaded Feb. 5, 2015
Writer: Rachel Reed