Before Bea Kim took up snowboarding, she was a surfer. Growing up in southern California, Kim's early childhood was spent in the ocean learning how to ride the waves.

Her family spent a majority of the time in the outdoors, camping in their favorite spot in Big Sur that straddled both the beach and the Redwood Forest. It was here that Kim started to see the effects of climate change when mudslides and wildfires across the California coast prevented the family from heading to their favorite spot. It wasn't just happening in Big Sur either. As Kim traveled for snowboarding across the world, fluctuations in the amount of snow due to rising temperatures impacted her competitions. The gradual realization that her sport was suffering as a consequence spurned her to act.

"I felt that one, I couldn't watch it happen and not say anything about it," Kim said. "But also, I realized how quickly the danger of losing snow and losing winter and losing the future of my sport was and how real it really was becoming."

In Episode 4 of the My New Favorite Olympian and My New Favorite Paralympian podcast, titled "Bea Kim: Snowboarding's thrifting queen champions sustainability," the snowboarder explains to hosts Chase Cain and Adam Rippon how she connected with Protect Our Winters, an organization founded by professional snowboarder Jeremy Jones to turn outdoor athletes into climate advocates. The organization arranged for Kim to deliver a speech in front of the United Nations as well as encouraged her to speak at the U.S. Capitol to address the impacts of climate change across the world. 

When she's not advocating in front of world leaders, the 19-year-old is thrifting. After Kim's mother introduced it to her when she was young, Kim has been second-hand shopping as a way of practicing sustainability. 

"I know each person has their own kind of sustainability goals and we're all very imperfect advocates," Kim said. "You know, none of us are perfect in the way that we live our lives. I travel the world. My carbon footprint is enormous. But thrifting and secondhand shopping is definitely one way that I try to combat that a little bit."

Hear all of that and more in this week's episode of My New Favorite Olympian.

Episodes of My New Favorite Olympian and My New Favorite Paralympian release weekly in the lead-up to Milan-Cortina.

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