Do we like them?

Do we like Chloe Kim?

Our score: 7 out of 10. A clean record and some real good, but the record we found is thin on LGBTQ+ and climate questions, so we stop short of the top end.

Chloe Kim is a halfpipe snowboarder from Southern California, the daughter of South Korean immigrants. She won Olympic gold in 2018 and again in 2022, and went to Milan Cortina in 2026 chasing a first-ever third straight snowboarding gold. She ended up with silver, behind South Korea's Choi Gaon, who scored 90.25 to her 88.00.

The nearest thing to a scandal we found is that there isn't one. Searches for lawsuits, allegations, court cases and misconduct turned up nothing against her, only other people with similar names. Nothing new on her lately either: the latest reporting we found is from February's Olympics.

The one real stoush she was in was political, and she didn't start it. Teammate Hunter Hess said he had mixed feelings about representing the US, citing the immigration crackdown in Minnesota. Trump then wrote on Truth Social that it was “Very hard to root for someone like this” and later called Hess “a real loser”.

Kim backed Hess at a news conference, saying “my parents being immigrants, this one definitely has hit pretty close to home”. She said athletes are allowed to voice opinions and called for leading “with love and compassion”. How you read that depends on your politics, but what she did was defend a teammate's right to speak and ask for kindness, and that sits fine on the harm test.

On the harm check, we found no harmful words or acts of her own, and no run of projects with people who push harm. We also found nothing from her on trans rights or climate in the reporting we read, so this is a pass on a thin record, not a ringing endorsement. Where she has spoken up, it's been against hate.

The good stuff is about the people around her. She has known Choi for about a decade, and reportedly helped her with translation and advice early on, and her family helped connect her with a coach, per the Korea Times. When Choi beat her, Kim hugged her and posted that she felt like “a proud mom”. That's a gracious way to lose to your own protégé.