At least four Asian Americans have reportedly qualified to participate in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in February, and three of them are representing Team USA, including Olympic gold medalist Chloe Kim.
The athletes: Team USA recently released some of the names of the athletes who have qualified for next year’s winter games, including short track speed skaters Eunice Lee and Andrew Heo and snowboarder Chloe Kim, NBC Sports reported.
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- More than 200 athletes are expected to participate in the games, but only 39 have qualified so far.
- Lee, 17, was included in the final roster of Team USA’s Short Track Speed Skating team after her performance at the Utah Olympic Oval outside Salt Lake City from Dec. 17-19, according to NBC Sports.
- Little has been published online about Lee. Her Team USA introduction notes that she was born in South Korea and currently lives in Bellevue, Washington.. She reportedly has no profile on the US Speedskating website and was not part of the national team before this month’s qualifiers in Utah.
- Heo, 20, also secured a spot after beating Brandon Kim, the highest-ranked American man in speed skating. Heo currently resides in Warrington, Pennsylvania, and his older brother, Aaron, has also competed for Team USA.
- Kim, 21, won a gold medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and will compete for Team USA in Snowboarding. Speaking to The New York Times in 2019, the athlete, who lives in Torrance, California, hinted that the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics might be her last.
- “I don’t know if I can do that for that long,” she said. “It would be cool to go to the Olympics three times, but I feel like I did it once and I’m really happy. I feel like when I’m 26, I’m going to be like my back, my arms, my legs, my shoulders, my neck. I feel like everything is going to fall apart.”
Representing another country: Asa Miller, a Filipino American included on the list, will reportedly represent the Philippines and not the U.S., according to The Philippine Star. Born in Oregon, Miller reportedly has ties in Santa Cruz, a district of Manila.
