PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — In a rare moment of quiet before the Olympic halfpipe final, the culmination of a dream that has consumed much of her 17 years, Chloe Kim got a text from her father.
“This is the time to be a dragon,” he wrote. “Today is the day the imugi turns to dragon.”
In Korean mythology, an imugi is a large snake. It eventually turns into a powerful dragon, one that can soar through the clouds and carries a golden pearl in its mouth.
What a perfect analogy.
In many ways, Kim is a typical American teenager.