When Chloe Kim woke up Monday morning, life was quite different. She didn’t have an Olympic gold medal and she had a respectable number of followers on Twitter, but nothing especially jaw- dropping.
What a difference a day makes.
On Monday, Kim, 17, started the day with about 20,000 followers on Twitter. At 9:42 p.m. EST, she won her first Olympic gold medal. NBC commentators mentioned her social media account and the fact that she had tossed out a funny tweet in the midst of the competition. That’s when the floodgates opened.
Within 90 minutes, her followers had increased sixfold. As of 9:42 a.m. EST Tuesday morning, she had 175,000 followers on Twitter.
So, not only is Kim now a bonafide Olympic sensation, she’s also a social media star. And, for the past few days, at least, she has staked her claim in the food space.
The tweet that merited an on-air mention talked about food.
Wish I finished my breakfast sandwich but my stubborn self decided not to and now I'm getting hangry
— Chloe Kim (@ChloeKim) February 13, 2018
She talked about food earlier that day, too.
Could be down for some ice cream rn
— Chloe Kim (@ChloeKim) February 12, 2018
Her post-competition press conference also seemed to focus on her love of food:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHZtMdiARAw
And she sang songs of praise about the calming qualities of food on Sunday.
Oh and I also had 2 churros today and they were pretty bomb so if you ever get nervous go eat a churro
— Chloe Kim (@ChloeKim) February 11, 2018
A quick scan of recent older tweets also sees mentions of pizza and fast food chain In-N-Out.
Kim’s Instagram followers, meanwhile, have spiked to 409,000. She tends to ignore food and stick to snowboarding there, which, when you think about social media’s obsession with food pictures, is kind of ironic.