PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Chloe Kim, the 17-year-old who outsoared her helpless rivals to win the gold medal in the snowboard halfpipe Tuesday, was sitting near Shaun White on the eve of the Olympics, when a question about pressure was directed her way. Kim, lined up on an auditorium stage with the American team, was, after all, expected to overwhelm the competition here, and maybe at several more Games after this.
She shrugged the question away.
“I don’t really think about it as pressure,” she said. Pressure is a byproduct of expectations, she added, and expectations mean that people believe in you.