Here’s How Much Olympic Snowboarding Star Chloe Kim Is Making From Endorsements

Chloe Kim was one of the faces of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games, winning gold at just 17 by becoming the first female snowboarder in Olympic halfpipe history to land back-to-back 1080s—three full revolutions in the air. Then she broke her ankle at a 2019 competition and decided to take a break from the sport, enrolling at Princeton. As she grappled with depression and the burden of unfair expectations, her snowboarding hiatus stretched to nearly two years.

She returned in January 2021 at a World Cup event in Switzerland, where she finished first. Weeks later, she did it again at the X Games in Aspen, Colorado. Then came the world championships, a World Cup event, Dew Tour Copper and one more World Cup event last month. The results? First, first, first and first.

No wonder Kim, now 21, is the heavy favorite to claim another gold medal for Team USA at the Beijing Olympics—and one of the top-earning athletes at the Games. Forbes estimates that she has made $3 million in guaranteed payments from her sponsors in the 12 months leading to these Olympics, with the ability to earn more by picking up bonuses from her brand partners with a medal-winning performance in Beijing. Kim, whose quest begins with halfpipe qualifying on Wednesday morning in China (Tuesday night in the U.S.), could also capture a small cash prize from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee with a medal win.

Relative to professionals in the major North American sports leagues, virtually all Olympic athletes struggle to secure sponsorships, and it’s even tougher sledding for Winter Olympians than for Summer Olympians. On top of that, action-sport athletes like Kim have a limited competition schedule, without a coherent world tour, which means fewer chances for exposure than sponsors could get with, say, alpine skiers. Kim may also have lost some marketing opportunities during her time away from snowboarding.

Yet even with all of those caveats, Kim is doing good business away from the slopes, ranking among the highest-paid Olympians in Beijing. That is particularly striking because, while she has an impressive 733,000 followers on Instagram and 264,000 on Twitter, she is not especially active on social media, a growing point of emphasis for advertisers.

Kim’s portfolio includes major consumer brands like Monster Energy, Nike and Toyota, and she switched a major equipment sponsorship in 2020 from Burton to Roxy, picking up the opportunity to design a signature outerwear line. Kim is also one of the four athlete cofounders of women’s sports media platform Togethxr—alongside the WNBA’s Sue Bird, Olympic swimmer Simone Manuel and soccer star Alex Morgan—and she is part of a new NFT drop through game developer nWay.

Kim spoke to the New York Times and Time recently about the feelings of depression and isolation she had faced since her Olympic breakout in 2018, stung by criticism that she was too cocky. But she has also shown a goofy side that resonates with brands, letting her personality shine through even while competing in disguise on reality singing competition The Masked Singer in 2020.

That version of Kim also came out when she was named to the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the sports category. Answering the candidate’s questionnaire, she told Forbes her favorite takeout order, go-to karaoke song and most overused emoji: Domino’s pizza, “Call Me Maybe” and the pink flower.

With additional reporting by Justin Birnbaum.

For more on Olympians’ earnings, check out Forbes’ estimates for Nathan Chen, Mikaela Shiffrin and Shaun White—plus Summer Olympian Simone Biles.