Stop Trying to Eliminate Self-Doubt — Do This Instead | Chloe Kim

Chloe Kim, who became the youngest woman to win Olympic gold in snowboarding at age 17, sits down for an in-depth conversation covering her athletic career, mental health journey, and personal growth. The interview begins with her discussing how she reframes external pressure — rather than viewing others' expectations as burdensome, she learned to see them as cheerleaders who believe in her, a mental shift she made at a young age that made competition feel more freeing.

Kim reveals that snowboarding was never her chosen sport — she wanted to be a jockey or figure skater — but her father steered her toward snowboarding. Her father quit his career to invest everything in her training, with a quiet deadline: if she hadn't made it by age 13, the family could no longer afford to continue. Unknown to Chloe at the time, she began excelling right at that threshold. She qualified for the Sochi Olympics at 13 but was too young to compete, which built enormous anticipation heading into her first actual Olympic cycle. The pressure became so intense that she had to sit her parents down and ask them to let home feel like home again.

A major portion of the conversation focuses on the Milan 2024 Olympics, where Kim competed with a dislocated shoulder and only eight days total on snow after a training camp injury sidelined her for most of the season. She describes the psychological challenge of competing under those conditions — not being able to eliminate self-doubt, but learning to rely on muscle memory and accept uncertainty. She ultimately won a silver medal, which she frames not as a disappointment but as one of the greatest lessons in grit she has ever learned, saying she refused to give up when many people told her it wasn't a good idea to compete.

Kim recently received a diagnosis of severe ADHD, which she describes as explaining much of her lifelong experience — chronic exhaustion, racing thoughts, reactive emotional responses, difficulty sleeping, and an inability to focus on anything except snowboarding, where she had complete tunnel vision. She discusses how her ADHD inadvertently made her a better athlete: her hyperactive imagination allowed her to visualize tricks before attempting them, she had no fear of trying new maneuvers, and she obsessively rehearsed runs mentally at night. However, outside of snowboarding, the untreated ADHD contributed to emotional reactivity and difficulty showing up for relationships.

The conversation turns deeply personal as Kim discusses her two-year therapy journey, which began not for sport-related reasons but because she felt she wasn't showing up as a good person in her personal relationships. She describes working with her therapist three times a week and making significant progress, but noting one persistent issue — explosive emotional reactivity when triggered — that therapy alone wasn't resolving. This led her to a psychiatrist, who identified severe ADHD along with depression and anxiety, recommending they regulate the ADHD first since it was likely driving the other conditions. Kim notes that in just the past week, situations that would have previously caused anxiety resolved calmly.

Kim also reflects on lessons from her father, a former tiger parent and engineer who made unconventional training decisions — like attaching a tennis ball to her pants to stabilize her arm, and insisting she master switch riding years before it became standard — that proved visionary. Despite the intensity and some emotional difficulty in their relationship, she describes deep gratitude and forgiveness, noting her father, now 70, is currently in Japan attending culinary school and learning Japanese, which inspires her first 'three truths': keep learning, take care of yourself, and have fun.