Gold Medalist Chloe Kim’s Advice for When You’re Feeling Nervous

If anyone knows anything about nerves, it’s Chloe Kim. Just yesterday the 17-year-old snowboarder was standing on top of a mountain in Pyeongchang waiting to compete in the women’s halfpipe at the Winter Olympics for the first time, wracked with nerves and wishing she’d finished her breakfast sandwich. Now she’s an Olympic gold medalist — the youngest American woman to win an Olympic gold medal for snowboarding — and she has some good advice for anyone who might be feeling nervous before a big event: Eat a churro.

On February 11, Kim Tweeted that she was super nervous, but eating two churros helped calm her down.

“Oh and I also had 2 churros today and they were pretty bomb, so if you ever get nervous go eat a churro,” she wrote, before adding that she could still use some ice cream.

The churros seem to have worked, because she earned a nearly perfect performance on the halfpipe and clinched the gold medal.

She was actually Tweeting about food during the competition, too. Between her runs on the halfpipe on Tuesday morning, she Tweeted that she hadn’t finished her breakfast sandwich, and she regretted it because now she was getting “hangry.” Her fans were stunned that she was in the middle of competing at the Olympics but was relaxed enough to be talking about food on Twitter.

Hangry seems to have served her well, though. And when you win a gold medal, you can have whatever you want. For her post-gold interview, TODAY managed to find some churros, and they brought them along with another breakfast sandwich and some chocolate ice cream.

With a spread like that, it’s hard to choose what to eat first. Kim tried them all together and did not recommend that, but said she was glad she tried it. Maybe when you can jump off a mountain and spin around the way she does, you get braver about trying unlikely flavor combinations, too.

Kim deserves all the snacks, and a rousing standing ovation. Her performance was amazing.