Olympic gold medalist Chloe Kim chats with us about her partnership with Purina Pro Plan

May was National Pet Month and during that time, Olympic gold medalist and dog mom, Chloe Kim, teamed up with Purina Pro Plan. It was all part of an effort to raise awareness for the Million Mile Challenge (originally launched in April), which would see dog owners and their pets tracking their miles in the app Strava. Miles were tracked and money was donated!

Basically, it was an initiative to get people and their pups out of the house and more active, while also helping to raise money for Athletes for Animals. If you aren’t familiar with this group (I know that I wasn’t before this), it is a group of athletes with a passion and commitment to helping homeless pets. It is as much about protecting them, as it is rescuing them and helping them find forever homes.

And it makes perfect sense that Chloe Kim would be working with Purina Pro Plan to help raise money for such a great cause. Not only as a dog mom, but also as a world class athlete with an Olympic medal.

If you missed out on the first Million Mile Challenge, there is a second challenge running June 1 until June 30! “During this time, dog owners are invited to log 250,000 more miles and Purina Pro Plan will make an additional donation of up to $25,000 dollars (ten cents for every mile logged) to Athletes for Animals.”

But of course, the coolest part of this entire partnership might just be the fact that we were able to ask her a few questions of our own! (Can you blame us for geeking out over Chloe Kim?!)

Chloe Kim shares more about being a dog mom, working with Purina Pro Plan, and the challenges she faces traveling as a dog owner

Dog O’Day: What inspired this partnership with Purina Pro Plan?

Chloe Kim: “What inspired me to partner with Purina Pro Plan Was that I have the best dog in the world. I’m a little biased but she just deserves to be a star. Like I want my daughter to be a star and when Purina Pro Plan approached us and they were like, we want to do something with you and Reese, I was like, absolutely, let’s do it. But also, I think Purina is a great brand and time and time again show how involved they are with the wellness of animals, and with the million mile challenge and donating to Athletes for Animals, it’s all going to great causes and they’re doing great things. So it just made sense for me to partner with Purina Pro Plan.”

DOD: What are some of your favorite things to do with Reese to stay active?

CK: “My favorite thing to do with Reese is just go outside. She’s such an active little dog, and I love her for that. But we love to go on walks around the neighborhood. I actually live pretty close to the canals, so we’ll do like a big loop there. Sometimes I’ll go on a longer jog, so I’ll take her with me, which she also loves. She actually does this really funny thing where, when I run she’ll bite the leash and she like runs behind me so it feels like she’s walking me sometimes, which is just kind of funny. So we love doing that and she loves hiking, like I have this great off leash trail that we go on and she loves it. She loves exploring. She loves like going in the bushes and finding little lizards. She loves to chase lizards. So I think just like those moments make me so happy because I think that you know, it just makes that experience so much better.”

DOD: What’s the best part of being a dog mom?

CK: “The best part of being a dog mom is I feel like I have a very great inside scoop on what parenthood is going to be like with an actual human baby. Because I have had Reese since she was a baby, like an eight week old baby, and watching her have this incredibly funny personality and knowing that we have such an incredible relationship and we can’t even communicate, like verbally communicate, it says a lot. It’s just been such an incredible experience for me and it’s helped me so much with my mental health. And when I’m bored I know that Reese is always down to play. So that’s so much fun too. I think just being a dog mom is one of my favorite moments and I am going to continue being the best dog mom I can possibly be.”

DOD: What are some challenges you face as a dog parent who travels and how do you handle those challenges?

CK: “I think the hardest challenge for me is definitely when I’m traveling and I’m away a lot of the times. I’m gone for months and sometimes even three days, and it’s so, so hard knowing that Reese is probably wondering where I’ve gone or what I’m doing. So that’s hard but luckily my, I mean not luckily of course they have to, but my entire family loves Reese and sometimes they’ll just come over and take her for the day and I’m like guys come on, like give me my dog back. Like that’s my child. But they’ll be like, Oh, we’re gonna go on a hike. And I’m like, well, I already took her on a hike but you know, if you want to take her that’s fine just tells me that you guys want to hang out with her. Just admit it. So it’s nice to know that when I am away, there’s so many people who love her and that take such great care of her. So luckily I have that support because I don’t think I’d be able to do it if I had to leave her at a doggy daycare or something.”

DOD: And a fun one. If you were a specific breed of dog, what would you be and why?

CK: “Okay, so like a lot of people I took a quiz, like a Buzzfeed quiz about what dog breed I was and I got Samoyed. Which I thought was really funny, and then I told my friends because we all took it at the same time. They’re like, Oh my gosh, totally see it. But I mean, I guess that makes sense. Because they’re like happy, high energy, smart, and really cute. I’m just like complimenting myself like indirectly. But it makes sense. But I could totally see myself being an Australian Shepherd. You know how they always say, dogs look like their owners? So maybe I would be an Australian Shepherd.”

To close out the interview, Chloe Kim also shared a little more about the Purina Pro Plan partnership and their second Million Mile Challenge, which runs June 1 to June 30, with another opportunity to raise money for Athletes for Animals. This time with the brand hoping to donate $25,000 if the goal mileage of 250,000 miles is achieved. (And since dog owners were able to hit that million miles the first time around, we can only hope they are able to do the same thing this time to raise another $25,000 for animals in need.)