ESPN: Kid Fearless

Chloe Kim at age 17 won the snowboard halfpipe gold medal for the US Olympic Team. South Korea and the rest of the world, too, celebrate the story of immigrant success and a child who made her Olympic debut in her parents’ homeland. Her father came to the United States in 1982 at age 26. “With $800 and an English-Korean dictionary, Jong purchased a 1970 Nova, bought a carton of Kent cigarettes and paid $150 for a one-week stay at a hotel,” explains Alyssa Roenigk for ESPN. “‘I had $100 left in my pocket,’” he says…. He landed jobs as a dishwasher at a burger joint and a cashier at a liquor store, where he practiced English with customers. After a few years, he enrolled in college and eventually earned a degree in manufacturing engineering technology.” Jong Jin Kim points out his daughter was “born into a family without athletes in a city without snow, who by 14 was one of the most influential women in her sport.” Rather than rest before the competition, she flew to South Korea to represent the United States for the State Department. A ThinkProgress article points out that the success of Kim and other US Olympian athletes who are children of immigrants “pokes holes into the Trump administration’s criticism that only worthy-enough immigrants and their progeny should be welcomed into the United States.” – YaleGlobal