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NEED TO KNOW
Chloe Kim opened up about the activity that keeps her competitive spirit alive when she's not snowboarding, in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE
The two-time Olympic snowboarder shared that she plays it with her boyfriend, who she says is "so good" at it
She also spoke about her longtime love for Nintendo and the new Mario Kart World game
Chloe Kimis a competitor at heart.
There's no denying that the Olympic gold medalist brings the heat to the slopes as an accomplished snowboarder, but now she tells PEOPLE about how she keeps that fiery competitive spirit alive in her downtime, too.
"What came first is probably my love of snowboarding, but my love for video games came very shortly after that," Kim, 25, tells PEOPLE exclusively at the specialMario Kart Worldevent while chatting about her latest partnership with Nintendo.
"Luckily, all of my friends are nerds, so we all love playing video games together," she jokes. "But yeah, my best friend, Austin... he definitely is the most competitive person, I think. But even my boyfriend, he's so good at video games, so it's just fun."
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Kim has beenromantically linkedto NFL star Myles Garrrett of the Cleveland Browns since May 2025. They've dropped cute comments on each other's social media pages and appeared in photo roundups in the months that followed, but have primarily kept their romance private.
Currently, the athlete is preparing to represent Team USA in the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, where she looks to defend her halfpipe title — and make history, too. If Kim wins gold, she will be the first woman to complete a "three-peat" in the event.
The Milan Winter Games will be Kim's third consecutive Olympics. She made her debut in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games (where she won the gold medal in the women's snowboard halfpipe) and returned for the 2022 Beijing Games (where earned gold once again).
Amid the hard work and training in the months leading up to her Olympic return, Kim turns to video games to relax.
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"I get a lot of downtime, luckily. I'm a winter athlete, so I can just kind of chill during the summers," she shares. "I feel like I make the most out of my downtime. I'm definitely always playing games, and that's why I love my Nintendo Switch 2."
She adds, "I'm always able to bring it with me on the road. I got a really cute case for it, it's pink!"
Kim, who is the daughter of mom Boran Yoon Kim anddad Jong Jin Kim, credits her older siblings, Erica and Tracy, for introducing her to the hobby.
"My sisters loved video games, and they had the Game Boys back then, because they're 10 and 15 years older than me, so there's quite an age gap," she shares. "But my first console was the Nintendo DS, and the first game I played was Pokémon andMario Kart,Super Smash Bros, all of that."
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Looking ahead to the 2026 Winter Olympics, Kim — who made history as the first woman to land back-to-back 1080 spins in a halfpipe competition in 2016 — plans to keep that competitive momentum alive when she's not soaring upwards of 12 ft. in the air above the lip of the halfpipe.
And while the eight-time X Games gold medalist confirms that there's "1000%" game among athletes in the Olympic Winter Village when they're chilling between competition, she says her Italian stay will look a little different this year compared to Olympics past.
"This time I'm staying with my family at the Olympics. So yeah, we'll get some pretty heated gameplay going," says Kim, adding, "My family, we're so highly competitive."
For a winter sport athlete, Kim is beyond chill to say the least, including her approach to training and her mindset in the months leading up to the most prestigious competition grounds in sports.
"Training for me right now is going to stay the same," she shares of her preparation ahead of February. "I try not to change too much. Try to just stay in the same vibe and rhythm as I always do. So I think that'll work out for me in the end."
And for the athlete who spends her career in flipping and twisting in the air, video games keep her grounded.
"I think having a love for gaming is everything to me and who I am because I think it allows me to just entertain my younger self, and it's just so fun," she shares. "I feel like games are for everyone."
Kim concludes, "There should be no age limits or any weirdness around that."
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