Meet the 12 Asian-American Athletes Competing in the Pyeongchang Olympics
Team USA is breaking numerous records at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics! One of the greatest aspects is the number of Asian-American Athletes competing!
1. Chloe Kim
At the age of 17, Korean-American Chloe Kim is already a star athlete. She is the only athlete ever to take home 3 gold medals before the age of 16 at the X Games as well as taking home gold at the Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer in 2016. In addition to being a great athlete, Chloe also speaks three languages (English, Korean, and French) and wants to become a veterinarian in the future.
2. Hailey Langland
17-year-old Filipino-American Hailey Langland also has a strong love for snowboarding. She is the first woman in X Games history to land a “cab 1080 double cork” which earned her a gold medal in 2016. Hailey loves music and taught herself how to play ukulele, guitar, and piano. She loves surfing, skateboarding, mountain biking, drawing, and wants to jump into the filmmaking industry after the Olympics.
3. Nathan Chen
Although suffering a fall during his first Olympic performance, Chinese-American Nathan Chen is still one athlete to watch. Nathan trained at Ballet West as well as competed both at a state and regional level in gymnastics for seven years. In 2017, Nathan was undefeated even beating out defending Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu. Nathan is also known as the “quad king” as he can perform multiple quadruple jumps in each program.
4. Maia and Alex Shibutani
Maia and Alex Shibutani, fondly called the “Shib Sibs”, are amazing ice skaters. They have already won 2 gold medals, 3 silver medals, and 2 bronze medals since competing at the senior-level and they placed ninth at the Sochi Olympics! After seeing their first performance, these two Japanese-American figure skaters are definitely ones to look out for!
5. Mirai Nagasu
24-year-old Japanese-American Mirai is one of only two American women to land a triple axle internationally. Mirai also competed at the Vancouver Olympics and came just shy of reaching the podium (she placed 4th!). Mirai is also a big fan of golf and loves to play when she isn’t out on the ice.
6. Karen Chen
Karen Chen is another amazing athlete. She is one of the rare athletes that can say that she choreographs her own ice skating routines! Karen has also won gold at the 2017 U.S. National Championships and won fourth at the World Championships. Karen is Taiwanese-American.
7. Madison Chock
Madison Chock is descended from a Chinese-Hawaiian father and a mixed-European mother. She began skating at 5 and ice dancing at 12. She is a two-time Olympian, coming in 8th place at the Sochi games with her partner Evan Bates.
8. Vincent Zhou
17-year-old Chinese-American Vincent Zhou is another great figure skater. From 2011 to 2013 he has won 3 consecutive national titles at three different age levels and won silver at the World Junior Championships. Vincent loves cats, hiking, and writing short poems.
9. Thomas Hong
Speed-skating athlete Thomas Hong is returning to the place of his birth this Olympics. Thomas was born in Seoul and moved to the U.S. at the age of four. Thomas has placed in a number of World Championships and was a part of a world record-setting relay team with JR Celski at the 2017 World Cup in Shanghai.
10. John Robert (JR) Celski
The 2018 Olympics will be the third Olympics that Filipino-American speed-skater JR Celski will have competed in. He has previously won silver as well as 2 bronze medals and was a part of the world record-setting relay team with Thomas Hong in 2017.
11. Aaron Tran
Short track speed-skating is the name of the game for Vietnamese-American Aaron Tran. This will be Aaron’s first time at the Olympics and to get there he placed second at the men’s 500-meter during the U.S. Olympic short track speedskating trials in 2017.
