PYEONGCHANG, Gangwon Province ― South Korea has been dominating short-track speed skating at the Olympic Games for quite some time.
Korea, however, has never been very strong in ski events, failing to win a single medal on the Olympic stage.
But winning a medal in skiing is not a pipe dream, and the day is coming soon when Korea will host its first Winter Olympics in PyeongChang 2018, said Byun Jong-moon, head coach of the Korean alpine team.
“We used to be far behind the Europeans and the Americans, but now Korean skiers are as strong as the world’s top-level skiers,” he said.
Byun Jong-moon, head coach of the Korean alpine skiing team. (Oh Kyu-wook/The Korea Herald)
Byun said he believes the 2018 Winter Games in Korea will provide the boost Korean skiers need.
“Our training condition has improved significantly compared to the past, but we still need more support,” said Byun, who is considered an alpine skiing pioneer in Korea.
Byun, 36, who first took to the ski slopes at age 5, became the first Korean to win a medal in alpine skiing after winning the men’s Super Giant Slalom event at the 1996 Winter Asian Games in Harbin, China.
Byun, who retired in 2003, was appointed head coach of the alpine ski team in December 2011. And since then, he has been undergoing winter training with the national skiers at the Yongpyong Resort in PyeongChang.
“We have 10 strong members, seven men and three women, on our team,” he said.
The team includes Kim Sun-joo and Jung Dong-hyun, who both won a gold medal at last year’s Asian Games.
The two Asian champions are getting close to making it into the world’s top level, he claimed. But he admitted there are still a lot of things that need to be done to see a Korean skier standing on an Olympic podium.
“We need trainers, wax technicians and a physiotherapist. We also need an expert who can look after the ski equipment. At the moment our skiers wax their own skis, and it takes up our training time.”
Apart from the technical support, he also wants to see more spectators at local competitions.
“When I first participated in a competition outside of the country, I was shocked to see so many spectators. It made me nervous, as I had never skied in front of so many people before,” Byun said.
More than twenty years since then, he added, things are not much different here, and it’s still hard to see spectators at local skiing competitions.
“I hope more people come to see skiing competitions. We need to become accustomed to spectators since we’ll be competing in front of a full-stadium at the Olympics.”
But he added that if a Korean wins an Olympic gold medal in a skiing event, it will boost the sport’s popularity ― as seen when Kim Yu-na brought about a figure skating boom with her gold medal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
“I believe it’ll happen at some point, and we’re getting close now,” he said.
By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldm.com)
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
