Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
My father didn't want to ski alone, so he took me up to the mountains in order to basically bribe my mom to come with him.
I'm proud of my Korean heritage, but I want people to know I'm American. It's not important to be the Korean Taylor Swift.
I feel like I can represent both countries, in a way, because I have a Korea face, but I was born and raised in the States.
Competing in my first Olympics in the country where my parents came from is pretty insane. I'm feeling nothing but excitement.
I'll be really tough on myself. Someone will be like, 'Oh that's really cool' and I'll be like, 'Yeah, but there's this one flaw.'
I think the goal is always to be both. I put more effort into the technical side of my riding, but style is very important nowadays.
It's super cool - I have this link to Korea, and with the Olympics, I have this opportunity to represent the U.S., Korea, and my family.
To me, snowboarding is really an art form, and I think every athlete, every snowboarder has her own style, and that makes them stand out.
When I first started snowboarding, my dad pretty much dragged me into it. I wasn't old enough to be like, 'Oh, I wanna snowboard!' you know?
I'm always trying to respond to my Instagram direct messages, even if they're a little weird. I'll have a Q&A on Snapchat and talk to everyone.
Being in a class with kids, meeting new people, and borrowing notes from other students - I've never done that before. I've always had to fend for myself.
My dad would load me into the car under a pile of blankets in the middle of the night so I could sleep the whole way and be on the mountain when it opened.
I try not to feel pressure, because I feel like it kind of throws you off. I always try to focus on myself. But it does kind of creep into the back of my mind.
I'm, like, finishing up high school. I don't know how you can learn anything from me because I'm still, like, a teenager. I don't know what I'm doing with my life.
I freak out when I see a spider. I was doing an interview once, and there was this really big, furry spider crawling up the tripod, and I was like, 'I can't do this!'
Luckily for me, snowboarding doesn't really feel like work unless I'm actually doing stuff that's, like, work-ish, but when I'm just snowboarding, I'm having so much fun.
It's a pretty crazy adrenaline rush because I feel like every run is different. You can never really expect anything. It's like a new adventure every time you drop into the pipe.
I grew up in Southern California. If it's snowing on a day I'm supposed to train, I'll just stare out the window in all my gear and be like, 'Hmmm, maybe not today.' I hate being cold.
I just go into a contest looking to put down a good run. As long as I feel like I've done what I came to do, and I'm happy with my riding, where I end up doesn't matter that much to me.
Snowboarding is a huge part of my life, but I also feel like it's important to have a plan B or a back-up plan for after my career because I can't snowboard for my whole life competitively.
Over the years, I've hurt my thumb, separated my shoulder, and injured my back, but not too bad. Actually, my back was hurt pretty bad. I had to take an ambulance and was in bed for a week.
I don't snowboard to win everything. I do it because I love it. I do it because I have fun, and everyone else can think whatever they want. For me, it's all about fun, and I enjoy it so much.
I did my first contest, and I got third, and my dad was, like, 'Wow, she has potential.' And I went back when I was 7, and I won. And my dad's like, 'All right,' and then he dropped everything.
I feel like dreams are always a little tricky, you know? But if you just push through the struggles and the hard times, it'll be so worth it in the end because you will be able to get to your dreams.
My dad has definitely sacrificed a lot for me, and I don't know if I could do it if I was in his shoes. Leaving your life behind and chasing this dream because your kid is passionate about this sport.
I genuinely only want to work with people that I agree with on certain things. There were many sponsors I didn't want to work with because I didn't agree with their messages that they wanted to use me to convey.
I can play guitar - but I can't really. I wouldn't say I'm talented at it. I just kind of watch videos on YouTube, and I follow the instructions... OK, yeah, my hidden talent: I'm good at following instructions!
I've flown from Aspen and then to Switzerland the next day and then off again the day after. That's the thing I love most about snowboarding, honestly - getting to travel and explore different places and meet people.
I don't remember the exact moment I fell in love with snowboarding; it wasn't something cheesy like, 'Oh the wind was blowing through my hair and I just knew this sport was for me... ' I was good at it, and it's exhilarating!
Honestly, I didn't like snowboarding when I was a little girl. As I got older, it became something I did with my dad. When I was 10, I knew I was good for my age, but I never felt that I was prodigy-level or anything like that.
I always try to see it in positive way, like, you know what, the people that are expecting so much about of me know I can do it and believe in me. So I just kind of think about it like that. And it makes me feel a little better.
The Olympics are just different. I'm not sure why; the pipe's the same size, the board you're riding is the same, you're competing against pretty much the same people. But the Olympics is the Olympics, and I know it's a really big deal.
I was, like, talking to these kids, and I look up, and there was, like, 25 cameras around me. And I ran. I ran away. I, like, straight up ran away, and I was so scared, and then, like, it happened, and after I was done, it kinda sunk in.
It's not like I was just dropped onto a snowboard and I was able to go 15 feet into the air. There was a lot of hard work that came with it. That's something that people don't really notice sometimes and the amount of sacrifice my family made.
I think I've started to have a lot more fun around snowboarding, even going out of the halfpipe and going to hit some jumps or getting some 'pow.' That definitely made it a lot more fun to me, just adding that much positivity into snowboarding.
It's such an honor to just represent the U.S. in the country where my parents immigrated from, and just this whole process has been amazing, and this journey has been so fun and full of so many memories that I will hold on to for the rest of my life.
Before I drop in, I tend to knock on my snowboard. You know how when you jinx yourself, they're like, 'Knock on wood.' My snowboard's wood, so in case I jinxed myself sometime in the past, I just knock on my board. It just makes me feel a lot more comfortable.
If I had a message to give my dad, it'd probably be, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you.' He's helped me so much on this crazy journey. Giving up his job, being away from my mom, and being away from home for that much just because of me? It's a lot. And I thank him for it.
I'm so used to America, used to the traffic in L.A., and I don't really feel it click with the Korean culture. But obviously, I have a Korean face, and I feel like that's just - you know, I can't walk around people like I'm, like, straight-up American. It's like, I'm Korean American. My parents are from Korea.
I moved to Switzerland when I was 8, and during our breaks, we'd go to snowboard, and he'd take me to the mountains; we'd take a train. It was kind of crazy, you know. When I think about it, I wake up at 4, take a train to the mountains, sleep in the train and then go snowboard, and then come back. It was quite a mission.
I feel like I have this different opportunity that not a lot of athletes may have. It's the fact that I'm Korean-American, and the Olympics are going to be in Korea, but I'm also riding for the States. I feel like I got really lucky that it got all pieced together - my first Olympics, being in Korea where most of my family is.