According to USA Today, Olympic gold medalist Chloe Kim, the first female snowboarder in Olympic history to win two gold medals in halfpipe, will take a break from the 2022-2023 competitive snowboarding season to prioritize her mental health. She plans to “reset” after a “draining” Olympic year.

“I just want to enjoy this moment, take it all in, and then get back when I’m feeling ready,” Kim explained.

Prioritizing mental wellness has been a winning strategy for Kim in the past. At age 17, she became the youngest woman to win gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. Afterward, according to TIME magazine, she experienced “the post-Olympic depression common to elite athletes who spend their lives training for a moment that comes only once every four years.” Sudden celebrity as a global superstar – adored in both the United States and her family’s native South Korea – took a toll. Burnt out on the sport she had loved, she decided to take a 22-month break from snowboarding in order to be a “normal college student” studying anthropology at Princeton, before returning and going undefeated.

She has earned praise from her coaches for handling inordinate pressure when others before her could not. Rick Bower, halfpipe coach of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard team admitted, “It was not easy. She is riding so much better than everyone else, but that expectation to win is crushing.”

Perhaps taking mental health breaks is key to that success. She plans to be back for the Milano Cortino 2026 Winter Games. Kim stressed, “The plan is most definitely to go after a third medal.”

For more on Kim’s rise to superstardom, her post-Olympic struggles, grappling with racism and anti-Asian violence, and how therapy has helped her “unlock her feelings,” read her profile in TIME Magazine.

Bailey, Analis. “Olympic gold medalist Chloe Kim to take a break from snowboarding to focus on her mental health.” USA Today, 26 Apr 2022, https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2022/04/26/olympic-gold-medalist-chloe-kim-sit-out-snowboarding-mental-health/7450450001/.

Photo by Danielle Parhizkaran at USA TODAY