Chloe Kim's Latest Interview Proves That Mental Health Is About the Journey, Not the Destination

The two sat down for the most recent episode of the What Shapes Us podcast. It was a real, raw chat that dove deeper into Kim’s snowboarding origin story than has ever really been uncovered. The two talked about everything from racism that Kim faced at an early age to what her life might look like as a mother one day.

Perhaps most importantly, we learned that while her family sacrificed so much to get her to where she is today, Kim wasn’t necessarily left with a choice about it all, and that significantly has impacted her mental health, even to today.

Kim’s father got her into snowboarding because he wanted to try it himself. After hearing from a local coach that she was pretty darn good for a young girl, he went all in.

“The goal wasn't like, ‘OK, this is a cool activity for her to do.’ It was like, we're going to the Olympics,” Kim said.

From there, Kim and her family started traveling all over the world to compete. In an effort to increase her air awareness, Kim’s father signed her up for the local diving team. To increase her trick selection, he signed her up to start skateboarding. Kim wanted to be a normal teenager in southern California. She wanted to be shopping, hiking, and hanging out with friends. There wasn’t any time for that though, so forward she marched.

In December 2021, The New York Times published a story that dubbed Kim “grown up.” John Branch wrote about how Kim felt crushed by instant attention, and some hatred that followed. A broken ankle in 2019 forced her to take some time away from snowboarding and led to her enrolling at Princeton as a student. The story touched upon all of her battles: racism following the Covid-19 pandemic, burnout, isolation, depression. Branch wrote that Kim overcame these things with the help of therapy.

That wasn’t the truth. She was taking care of her health in other ways. She was meeting with a sports psychologist, who she says she hated. It felt impossible for a therapist to relate to what she was going through, though. He or she was sitting at a desk all day. She was pushing her body to its limit and progressing an Olympic sport every single day. How could they possibly understand what she was going through?

“So I didn't do therapy, and I said I did, publicly, but I didn't,” she told Masekela. “Oops, sorry. I'm a liar.”

Then after a season in which the only contest she won was the X Games, Kim was down bad. She didn’t land a single run in her other two contest appearances. She was back to hating life. She was depressed, battling what Kim said was “low-key an eating disorder,” and making the wrong decisions in her personal life. She said that she wasn’t suicidal, but never wanted to leave the house.

“Then I was like, OK, I think I need to go to therapy, because I'm actually, like, crashing out bad, like, next thing, you know, I don't know what's going to happen to me. So I started going to therapy…At first, I thought it was really stupid, but I was, to be quite honest, I was just desperate for something and hoping that she could help. And she did.”

Back in January during an interview with Forbes Michelle Bruton, Kim said that while she at one point actively dreaded snowboarding, she had started “getting her demons out” and actually began to enjoy it again. The key? She stopped caring about winning. She reiterated that in her conversation with Masekela.

“I realized this season, which was maybe late, it's not my fault when I win, it's literally not my fault. Okay? There are five people who decide that,” she said.

It is hard to have a conversation about mental health through the lens of action sports. Thankfully, that has started to change over the last few years. Kim’s episode of “What Shapes Us” is proof that we have a long way to go to make this all normal.

Chloe Kim should be proud of herself for putting her entire truth out there. Selema Masekela should be proud of himself for giving her a safe space to do so. And I’m proud of the audience for being willing to listen.