In the meantime, Kim is getting deeper into the world of storytelling with Togethxr, the multimedia company she cofounded with fellow pro athletes Alex Morgan, Sue Bird, and Simone Manuel in 2021. “Chloe is a force and everyone who meets her can feel that,” says Morgan. “She is reinforcing that, as women, anything is possible. No matter what age or what challenges we face, she is setting the bar and giving the next generation new goals to reach for.”
TOGETHXR’s work focuses on giving underrepresented women in sports a platform. (Despite the incredible gains women athletes have made in recent years, less than 5% of sports media coverage currently goes to women—a stat that has barely improved over the past three decades.) “I didn’t have anybody that looked like me to look up to,” says Kim, who is South Korean American.
In addition to the pressure of being a young woman of color in an overwhelmingly white sport, Kim has spoken out about dealing with racism and hate throughout her career. “I just wished there was somebody who looked like me who could make me feel more seen or heard. But there really wasn’t,” she says. Of course there were many women in snowboarding she looked up to, but “their upbringings, their challenges, were completely different than mine,” she says. “People weren’t telling them, ‘Go back to your country,’ or calling them Chinese or telling them to not eat their dog. I felt alone for the longest time.”
That’s why she jumped when Morgan reached out with the idea of founding a media company. “If this can help the next generation and those who feel like their voices aren’t heard…. I can’t believe it’s taken this long for this to happen,” she says.
So far, Togethxr’s projects include I Am: Jalaiah, a documentary about Jalaiah S. Harmon, the Black content creator behind one of TikTok’s first viral (and misappropriated) dances; and Fenom, a docuseries following boxing prodigy Chantal “Chicanita” Navarro. Also, remember that video of a young Brazilian girl doing kick flips in a tutu and fairy wings that went viral a few years ago, Kim asks excitedly? Six years later, that girl, 13-year-old Rayssa Leal, won an Olympic medal. “Why didn’t we talk about this girl more? Why wasn’t this a bigger deal?” Kim asks. This is exactly the kind of athlete she wants to see get more airtime. “We’re creating a place that’s for women by women, and saying, ‘We see you, we hear you, and we’re advocating for you,’” she says.
