“USC Unsung Heroes” is a column by Anthony Bottino that talks about elite USC athletes who aren’t on one of the school’s Division I teams.
When you think about California sports, what comes to mind? Probably a summer sport in the heat, with the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky. Maybe you think of the beach or the pool. Most people likely think of sports like surfing, water polo or beach volleyball, right? While California and USC house many of those athletes, it is also home to someone who competes on an entirely different terrain. Instead of the sun shining, Chloe Barker shines in the snowy mountains.
Barker, a senior design major from Portland, Oregon, proves that Trojans also thrive on the slopes as USC’s resident national-champion snowboarder. Growing up near the mountains, she has always been infatuated with the snow, but she wasn’t originally a snowboarder.
Barker grew up only an hour away from the ski slopes and was a frequent visitor there. Along with her father, Barker made the trip countless times throughout her childhood. While she loved being outside in the mountains and surrounded by snow, she didn’t quite enjoy what she was doing. Her dad is an avid cross-country skier, so it seemed natural that Barker would also fall in love with the sport. However, that wasn’t the case.
Cross-country skiing works a lot differently than skiing at a resort or down a mountain. This type of skiing is racing. As Barker put it, it is essentially cross country or track, but on skis. The actual skis themselves are different, and the races are on flat snow. Barker said she found this boring and needed something more exciting. Growing up at the peak of snowboarding with Shaun White at the Olympics, she was dying to try something like it. She would watch skiers and snowboarders speed down the mountains, do tricks and watch the Olympics thinking they looked amazing. She wanted to be a part of this action-packed sport. Since you can’t mountain ski in cross country skis, Barker decided to take things into her own hands and bought her own skis. She later went the alternative route from skiing, however, and bought her first snowboard during her freshman year of high school.
The only issue was learning how to ride it.”I taught myself since my dad didn’t know, and I didn’t know how to get lessons, so I just looked on YouTube,” Barker said.
The first thing she searched was how to stop. From there, she learned basic edge control and how to turn. After that, Barker learned jumps and going off rails.With the basics down, Barker was itching to get on her board. Luckily, Barker’s high school had a ski and snowboarding team. She joined to get more riding experience, but she was quickly slung into the world of snowboarding competitions — something she wasn’t completely thrilled with.
Competing forced her to progress in her riding and learn all about the sport. Also, for the first time, she finally had a snowboarding coach. Barker said having a coach gave her the push and extra edge to start earning podiums in slopestyle competitions and racing at league competitions. She qualified for state tournaments but never found gold or a podium spot. It wasn’t until she came to USC when her talent really came out.
When it was time to apply to colleges, snowboarding was a big factor in her decision – she needed a school with a team and excellent academics. Barker was set to make her mark until the COVID-19 pandemic struck. This forced Barker to spend her freshman year online. In a turn of events, though, Barker wouldn’t be where she is if it wasn’t for the pandemic.
“I basically just lived on the mountain the whole time,” Barker said. “I really used that time to really get into snowboarding every single day and perfecting my riding – just constant practice no matter what the conditions were.”
When she was finally able to go to USC in person, her hard work paid off. Barker almost didn’t see the results, though. When she first arrived and joined the club, she originally planned to just train and take a break to do her own thing. Then, she realized she missed competing and signed up for the competition team at the last minute.
Her hard work paid off, and she qualified for the national championship. This was her first spotlight on a big stage, and she made the most of it, helping the team earn third place in women’s slopestyle. But this was only the beginning of her success at collegiate ski and snowboarding’s biggest competition.
The following year, her training only intensified as she made the five-hour drive to Mammoth Mountain every weekend and competed at every opportunity possible. She even started doing new competitions like boardercross. With her skills continuing to get better and having home-field advantage with nationals being hosted at Mammoth Mountain in March Barker seemed poised for a breakout moment. Barker excelled and claimed gold in slopestyle. She was surprised and underwhelmed by the big moment.
“I didn’t expect to win at all. I was the only female out of a group of guys, so I had no one to get a team award with, and I didn’t think I would get one myself,” Barker said. “When I was on the course, I was in the moment just wanting to do well.”
While the initial moment wasn’t a huge celebration, partly because it didn’t seem real to Barker, it set in after. Countless people praised her performance, and she finally felt like she was a national champion.
Now that she has solidified herself as one of the best, she is looking toward the next national championship with a lot more confidence.
“I wouldn’t say the goal is to repeat, but going into it, I have more confidence in my ability with what I can do in the moment,” Barker said. “Last year, I went for fun, but this year, I’m going to try and get there again.”
Barker’s talent is evident, but she doesn’t plan on trying to make a jump to professional snowboarding. She wants to continue competing locally and plan her job around snowboarding, but there is no plan for her to make it her career. For now, she is focusing on finishing her last year and enjoying her final season with the USC Ski and Snowboard team.
Barker cares deeply about the team and holds a position of one of the officers. She has taken it upon herself to make the team as professional as possible and to ensure they reach their full potential. This is where her design major comes into play. Barker will leave a legacy on the team, because she created the new team logo and is currently working on the club’s first-ever team uniform.
“This team means everything to me,” Barker said. “I came into USC not knowing a single person, and I was able to connect with everyone on a level of skiing culture and love for the sport.”
“USC Unsung Heroes” runs every other Monday.