Students at Chloe Kim's former La Palma school awed by Olympic gold medal

LA PALMA, Calif. (KABC) -- You could say the students at La Palma Christian School are a little bit excited about their famous former classmate Chloe Kim.

Kim attended the small private school off and on until sixth grade when training for the Olympics moved her away from Southern California.

When Kim won gold in women's snowboard halfpipe Monday, her former teacher Jamie Aleman said she had a feeling this day would come.

"I was crying so much because I was so excited to just be a part of this journey. Just being in the classroom with her and hearing all her stories snowboarding and hearing her dad saying she's going to be in the Olympics one day, having it play out and seeing all the stuff that she's done, it's amazing. I was so proud of her last night," Aleman said.

Eliot Bland, five years older than Kim, remembers watching her bounce daily on a trampoline in front of her La Palma home, wearing a harness, practicing for the Olympics. He also said she embarrassed him once at a local skate park because she was that good.

"She was one of the best skaters at the park as a second grader and I think that really woke me up because I was like this is the girl that I go to school and she's only in second grade. She's going to be something special," said Bland.

On Tuesday, students re-watched her gold medal winning run during an all-school assembly.

"Not just win, but she killed it. To see her representing our country, it was a proud moment. I was proud to be the guy at the skate park who got showed up by Chloe Kim that day because it made it like I was a part of the journey in a sense," said Bland.