InterviewGymnast Chloe Cho eyes LA Olympics under Korean flag

Korean American gymnast Chloe Cho poses during an interview with The Korea Times at Daejeon Physical Education High School in Daejeon, Monday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

DAEJEON — Chloe Cho calls gymnastics “a blessing.” It is how she discovered her strength, processed grief, and most importantly, found her way back to her father’s country.

Now, the 20-year-old is quietly working toward a singular goal: to represent Korea at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Growing up Korean American in California

Born in 2006 to a Korean father and American mother, Cho grew up just north of Los Angeles in Santa Clarita, California, in a household where Korean food, language and family rituals were woven into everyday life, even if she did not speak the language fluently. Her Korean name is Ji-yoon, a name her grandmother chose for her, meaning wisdom and grace.

“My upbringing just felt normal to me,” she said during an interview with The Korea Times. “My mom is American, my dad was born in Korea but moved to Hawaii when he was nine, then to L.A. where my parents met.” She recalled weekends at her grandmother’s house: “We would eat, take a nap, then we’d watch K-drama or play go-stop (a Korean card game) for an hour.”

Korean was the language in the background, more a comforting sound than a means of communication.

“When I was really young, I would fall asleep to my halmeoni (grandmother), appa (father) and gomo (aunt) speaking in Korean or watching dramas,” she said. “Being here in Korea now, hearing the language again feels like this child warmth, like the culture wrapping its arms around me.”

Food remains one of her easiest connections to that culture. “Cucumber kimchi is my favorite kind of kimchi, it’s so refreshing,” she said. “I also love danmuji (pickled radish), kimchi jjigae and doenjang jjigae, Korean melon and Korean barbecue. What don’t I like?” she said, laughing.

Korean American gymnast Chloe Cho poses in front of a training bar during an interview with The Korea Times at Daejeon Physical Education High School in Daejeon, Monday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Gymnastics becomes her calling

Cho started gymnastics at the age of six and eventually committed fully to the sport, even being homeschooled to accommodate her training and travel. Her talent carried her through the U.S. Elite Development Program and on to the highly competitive National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) stage.

Now a member of the University of Illinois women’s gymnastics team, she was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2025 and captured 16 individual titles. By her sophomore year, she had amassed 41 individual titles, earned WCGA regular-season All-America honors and raised her all-around best to 39.575 points — tied for sixth in Illinois program history.

Her signature event is the uneven bars. “Bars is my favorite,” she said. “On bars you’re swinging, flying, releasing, catching. It’s just so wonderful.”

Korean American gymnast Chloe Cho performs a full swing on a training bar during an interview with The Korea Times at Daejeon Physical Education High School in Daejeon, Monday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

The feeling is amplified by the collegiate environment. “The joy you feel when you make a routine is huge, because you’ve been training it for months,” she said. “In college, your teammates, coaches, classmates are all cheering. You didn’t just do this for yourself. Our motto is ‘We’re a family,’ and that’s really how it feels at Illinois.”

Gymnastics, she added, has taught her how to fail and try again.

“The first time you try something, you’re likely to mess up and fall. You might belly-flop off the bar,” she said. “But if you keep trying, it becomes easy. That’s something I want to carry into life — you can’t expect to be perfect the first time, but if you keep working, you will get better.”

Chloe Cho and her father hold hands at their home in Los Angeles, Jan. 25, 2025. Courtesy of Chloe Cho

Father’s legacy and Olympic vow

Last year, Cho’s life changed in a way that had little to do with scores or titles. After a long illness, her father passed away — a loss that left her unable to enter the gym for three months.

“At his funeral, I played three songs he wrote in college, one for each of his children,” she said. “I grew up playing piano with him, sharing music. We were very similar in personality and interest. He was an athlete too — football, baseball, always active. I’m the most athletic of my siblings, and we related so much on that level.”

For years, her post-meet ritual was to call her father. “It didn’t matter if the competition was good or bad. I’d get on the bus, call my dad and say, ‘This went well, this didn’t.’ Sharing that was special,” she recalled. “After he passed, even though I couldn’t call him anymore, competing still felt like a way to share what happened with him. I knew he would be proud.”

Those emotions crystallized into something more concrete when she was asked earlier this year about her Olympic ambitions.

“In that interview, it just came out of my heart,” she said. “I was already planning to study abroad in Korea, and suddenly the idea of competing for Korea became so important to me. If I could go back to my hometown of L.A. and represent Korea at the Olympics, that would be such an honor,” Cho said.

Chloe Cho and her coach at Chungnam National University communicate through a translation app at Daejeon Physical Education High School in Daejeon, Monday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Stepping into Korean gymnastics

This summer, Cho is living out part of that dream in Daejeon. She enrolled in a six-week summer program at Chungnam National University, taking global management and introductory Korean while training with the school’s gymnastics team and competing once as a guest in a domestic meet.

“I’ve always wanted to study abroad, especially in college,” she said. “My university had several programs in Korea, but I couldn’t be away from gymnastics season very long, so I chose this condensed summer term. It aligned perfectly with my career interests — global marketing and management — and my personal interest in Korea.”

Since arriving in late June, ten days before the semester began, she quickly found herself juggling classes, homework and weekend trips to places like Jeonju, Seoul and Busan —her father’s birthplace — while experiencing the everyday life in Korea she had dreamed of.

After finishing her NCAA season in mid-April and her spring semester in May, she took a long-planned family trip to Hawaii — a destination her father had long wanted them to experience together.

Her first competition in Korea was a July 3 KBS meet where she was invited as a guest competitor by the Korean Gymnastics Association (KGA). The preparation window was tight.

“That trip was very important to us,” she said. “When I came back, I had three weeks to get into competition shape, which is very difficult in gymnastics after time off. I trusted basics, strength training, muscle memory … It took a lot of faith — in God, in myself, in my coaches — but it went really well. It was a great stepping stone.”

Competing in Korea also exposed her to differences in style and system. She noticed the prevalence of bangs among Korean gymnasts compared with braids and buns in the U.S., and was surprised that men and women competed in the same session.

What felt similar, she said, was the atmosphere. “The coach-gymnast relationships here seem very good. You talk, you work together. It’s not just, ‘I tell you what to do,’” she said. “Even when I barely spoke Korean, teammates would gesture, say ‘hello,’ invite me to go first. I felt welcomed, not like someone just floating around.”

Korean American gymnast Chloe Cho stands in front of a Korean flag during an interview with The Korea Times at Daejeon Physical Education High School in Daejeon, Monday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Carrying two homes into one dream

To turn her summer experience into an Olympic reality, Cho faces a complex web of citizenship and eligibility rules. She is pursuing special naturalization, which grants citizenship to individuals with Korean familial ties who can make an exceptional contribution to the country.

Working closely with officials from the KGA, she is assembling documents from Korea and the U.S. and preparing for interviews and evaluations. “I’m very grateful to have people helping me,” she said. “It’s very difficult to figure everything out on my own, but I don’t feel alone.”

If she secures naturalization while retaining U.S. citizenship, she will then need a license from Federation Internationale de Gymnastique to compete for a Korean team and a spot to train toward national team selection. Her ultimate roadmap is clear, but the timeline is not.

“The time frame is very small,” she acknowledged. “I don’t know how long the citizenship process will take, or the licensing process, and those things have to happen before I can compete.” Early next year already looms as a deadline for major international events.

On top of that, new NCAA rules complicate the prospect of staying in Korea long term before gaining eligibility to compete for Korea. “If I stayed here, I would still lose a year of NCAA eligibility, even though I wasn’t competing here,” she said. “So right now, it may be best to return to Illinois this year, stay in very close contact with KGA, train for the national team and consider a gap year in 2028 — the Olympic year — when I would have citizenship and a license.”

With so much uncertainty, she jokes that she has “20 different future plans” and still hasn’t booked her flight back to L.A. yet. “Being here already feels like the beginning of something incredible,” she said, “this is my first time in Korea but definitely not the last — the first of many to come.”

Korean American gymnast Chloe Cho speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at Daejeon Physical Education High School in Daejeon, Monday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul