Behind so many great athletes, there's a parent who made a thousand sacrifices. In the case of 17-year-old champion snowboarder Chloe Kim, it was her dad Jong-Jin Kim, whose love and dedication to his Olympic-bound daughter are highlighted in this moving Super Bowl commercial for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
And whooo, it tugs at the heartstrings.
In the 60-second spot, set to Ray Charles' rendition of "America the Beautiful," we see Mr. Kim arriving late to pick up Chloe for snowboarding practice. We later seen him leave his job in order to support his daughter's snowboarding career full time. After that, he's there every step of the way, from practice to rides to competition.
The commercial closes with Chloe driving home from a competition, with her father happily asleep in the passenger seat, holding her trophy. Damn, I'm getting a little choked up while just writing about it.
And yes, it's all based on a true story. Chloe, who began snowboarding at age 4, showed so much promise that her father eventually did leave his job to fully focus on his daughter's career on the half-pipe, where, if you haven't heard, she has kicked much ass.
"The coolest part about shooting this commercial was doing it with my dad," Kim tells EW. "Its honestly the best representation of myself and my story because my dad was r'ight there with me."
Chloe is the first female to land back-to-back 1080s and first to score a perfect 100. She's racked up three gold, one silver and one bronze X Games medals, and is now the only athlete in X Games history to earn three gold medals before the age of 16. She is a heavy favorite to win gold in the halfpipe in PyeongChang.
So yeah, I think it's safe to say dad's sacrifices were worth it.
