Chloe Kim on Beijing 2022 Olympic Village: It's kind of like summer camp

Snowboarder Chloe Kim is loving life in the Beijing 2022 Athletes Village.

"It's such an amazing experience," the Winter Olympic gold medallist told media including Olympics.com on Saturday (5 February).

"We have bikes so we've been biking around the village, we've been playing cards and we have a Nintendo.

"It's kind of like summer camp and I've been enjoying hanging out. It's a good time!"

The American is once again favourite for the gold medal in the halfpipe. After a difficult time following her win at PyeongChang 2018, she is once again looking forward to competing.

"I feel good being back here. It's an honour to be here in Beijing and represent my country,” the American said at the Zhangjiakou Athletes Village.

“It's been an exciting four years since PyeongChang and I'm excited. Thank you Beijing for having us.”

Kim took a break from competing to go to college at Princeton but, now she’s back, she remains one of the toughest snowboarders on the circuit.

"I really do love snowboarding and I love being part of the progression of the sport. I'm excited for first day of practice. I'm not burnt out. I was a couple of years after [PyeongChang 2018] Games, which is why I went to school. I was grateful that I did that, and now I'm excited to be here.”

Now 21, she also opened up about the challenges she faced as her fame increased after her victory in South Korea. At one point, she even threw out her Olympic gold.

“After I won my first Olympic medal, I experienced something incredibly difficult to overcome. It was just learning how to relive my life and just going anywhere, people recognising [me], figuring out where I live, trying to break into my house [which] is a pretty big invasion of privacy and that wasn't something that I'd ever thought would happen…

“My new life was very challenging, and at that time, the only thing I could blame was [the medal]. But don't worry, I got [it] out of the trash. It's not in there anymore.”

From Youth Olympic gold to PyeongChang and now Beijing

Chloe’s career started with a win at the 2016 Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer. She’s a six-time X Games gold medallist, and a two-time world champion. There’s an expectation that she will bring home several more Olympic medals over a long career.

“There is added pressure because it's an Olympics. But I've been approaching it as just another contest. That's the mental approach I'm taking," she shared.

The halfpipe at the Genting Snow Park is one of the marquee events of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Kim said that she'll spring a surprise during the contest as well.

"I think I can't tell you what I'll do but I'm hoping to pull the run together I want to do. I'm trying to focus on amplitude as well as variety. I'm doing my best to incorporate all four directions of spins. That's the main thing I've worked on since last Olympics. That's how I want to push snowboarding, I want to encourage people to spin all four directions."

The women’s halfpipe final is 10 February with qualification the day before.