Martial Arts Gold Medalists Look Forward to Chuseok
Choi Min-ho, judo gold medalist at the Beijing Olympics (right), and Lim Su-jeong, taekkwondo gold medalist
Judoka Choi Min-ho and taekwondo player Lim Su-jeong delighted Koreans when they won gold medals in the Beijing Olympics. The Chosun Ilbo met with the wonder boy and girl of martial arts at the Olympic Park in Songpa district, Seoul with Chuseok or Korean Thanksgiving a few days away.
Although both of them are most familiar in sportswear, they looked just as attractive in traditional Korean clothes. Top Korean costume designer Lee Young-hee, who made hanbok for the heads of state attending the G7 Conference in Busan in 2006, presented the outfits to the two. Lim changed into a dark gray skirt and dark red jacket. It wasn't easy to imagine a fighter when the hem of her long skirt delicately flowed over her flower shoes. Told that this was the same style as the hanbok actress Lee Young-ae wore at the Venice Film Festival, Lim smiled. "I'm honored,” she said. “Am I good enough to be compared with her?"
Choi says he has been meaning to buy a traditional Korean costume. “Is this really a gift?" he asked.
Chuseok was lonely in the past for both of them. Athletes are fated to fight with themselves every moment to win in contests. They have to shed tears alone to stand on the Olympics stage. There is no end to the challenges they must conquer.
Asked what he recalls about past festivals, Choi hesitated and then said, "I remember nothing other than running in the hills in my hometown of Kimcheon alone at dawn. I exercised every waking minute."
Choi once suffered from insomnia due to the stress from training. In distress, he phoned his mother and asked her to send him some sleeping pills. Within a few days, a parcel arrived. It contained no medicine but a few books and a letter. The letter said, "A pharmacist says drugs hamper physical exercise. But you fall asleep whenever you read a book, so please read these books in bed." Since then, he has never suffered from sleeplessness.
Nothing much was different with Lim Su-jeong. "Once I got so depressed that I didn't exercise during a festival and took a rest at home. Selected as a national athlete in the first year of high school, I attracted a lot of attention. But my performance was poor. I fell into a slump when the training formula didn't suit me. Because of my depression, I even had clinical treatment. During the festival then, I just wanted to be alone."
But this Chuseok is likely to be full of happy memories for both athletes. Choi, on the eve of Chuseok, will go to the Daegu Stadium, the home ground of the Samsung Lions baseball team, accompanied by people from his hometown, to throw the first ball. "The baseball team is providing us with two buses and asked me to come along with all the people from my village,” he said. “And I'm going to the baseball stadium with my friends and relatives."
Lim is taking a two-day trip with her friends. "Friends of mine who don't do sports were sorry for not being able to see me. But I was rather angry, complaining that they don't understand me. I'm sorry for them. Taking the trip together, I hope to have time for a heart-to-heart.”
Will there be any discreet dates? Lim denies having a boyfriend. But Choi confides he befriended a flight attendant after the Athens Olympics who is the sister of his friend. After several meetings, they fell in love.
Lim cites ssireum (Korean wrestling) champion and popular comedian Kang Ho-dong as her ideal future spouse. "I like an ordinary man with charisma, like Kang Ho-dong."
Upon return home with their gold medals, the two have been busy with events and TV appearances and say they are too busy to think about anything. But their joy is palpable.
Once they are through with the best Chuseok of their lives, they return to their rigorous training routines and start the long and lonely struggles for the London Olympics. They promise they will be back.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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Lee Yong-hee: Hanbok designer
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