Olympic gold medal 5-6. Badminton Lee Gyeong-won (44) is participating in his sixth Olympics, three times as a player and three times as a coach. Is there anyone in the Korean delegation who has dedicated her life more earnestly than her to win the gold medal at the Paris Olympics?
The meaning and value of the Olympics and the national team are becoming less and less attractive. An era in which more and more athletes are saying, “They are retiring from the national team early,” as they cannot even compete, let alone win an Olympic medal. In a world where national team participation is regarded as a great self-sacrifice and people shy away from it, one cannot help but be impressed by Coach Lee’s 5 out of 6 wins.
■National women’s doubles coach for 9 years
She is neither a player nor a coach. She’s just a women’s doubles coach. When a sports team achieves success, most of the credit goes to the coach. Coaches rarely receive the glory, attention, or spotlight that players and managers enjoy. Who recognizes coaches?
However, this is my 9th year as a national team coach. During that long period of time, all other coaches changed. This coach is the only one left, assisting the fourth coach. You might remember it if you watched an international badminton match being broadcast on television. The image of this coach sitting on a chair in a corner of the stadium, always watching with his arms tightly crossed, and sometimes yelling at the players. It’s been 9 years since I cried and laughed while embracing the players at the moment of victory. She travels to international competitions around the world about 10 times a year. He always stays in a dark corner of the stadium and engages in bloody battles with the players.
I would never be able to become a national team coach if I wanted to. Would any of the four managers have hired this coach if he wasn’t talented? No matter how skilled you are, if you don’t have a strong reason and purpose, you will never be able to coach for that long. Isn’t this a reality that coaches don’t even understand? In any other sport, I don’t think there is anyone who has coached the national team longer than Coach Kyung-won Lee. What is it about her that has kept her as her national coach for so long?
As a player, this coach has already won silver and bronze medals in women’s doubles at the Olympics. She was the best player in Korean badminton, winning a gold medal at the Asian Games and winning the All England Open, the world’s most prestigious event. As a coach, he also won two Olympic bronze medals. It helped the women’s doubles achieve outstanding results in numerous international competitions, including winning the All England Open for the second time in a row and winning the Asian Championship. Best coach. It is a brilliant career that everyone would envy and no matter how much they boast about it, it will never be enough.
However, Coach Lee’s spirit of challenging for the gold medal, which started at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, has not waned at all even after 24 years. Coach Lee said at a media conference in 2023, “It is my dream and goal to see Kim So-young-Gong Hee-yong and Lee So-hee-Baek Hana in the finals at the Olympics.” Han, who was limited to a silver medal at the Beijing Olympics due to her sudden ankle injury, will remain with her. More than anything else, it may be because she has not yet kept her promise to her father.
37 years ago in 1997. Gyeong-won Lee, a third-year student at Seongji Girls’ High School in Masan, won two gold medals in the team and individual competitions at the National Sports Festival. Lee, whose father passed away when he was a freshman in high school, said, “I’m not crying now. After I win the Olympics, I’ll proudly go to my father’s grave holding the gold medal.” Winning an Olympic gold medal has been his earnest dream and goal since he was young.
No matter how lightly the national team is viewed, many athletes still risk their lives on the Olympics. The same goes for badminton players.
The story behind the now-retired women’s doubles player Jang Ye-na revealed in 2017. “I continued to compete fiercely in international competitions to accumulate points to qualify for the 2015 Rio Olympics. Isn’t there a final match between Japan and Japan in the last tournament? In fact, she had given up on competing in the Olympics. I cried a lot that day. She cried alone in the bathroom because she didn’t want her partner Sohee Lee to see her crying. It was so disappointing. She also thought about retirement. Coach Lee Gyeong-won also cried. “It was the saddest day as a badminton player.” It cannot help but be evident that both players and coaches are deeply desperate for the Olympics. (However, due to the uncompromising competition between Japanese athletes, Jang and Lee also went to the Olympics dramatically).
Badminton players travel the world tirelessly for four years to win the right to participate in the Olympics. UK, Germany, Sweden, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, etc. I go to international competitions once a month.
In the past, several national soccer players playing in Europe quit the national team early. There was a rumor going around that it was difficult to adjust to jet lag when returning from Korea and that taking a long plane ride would ruin your knees. If it is true, they should deeply reflect upon seeing badminton players. They only compete in Korea a few times a year. National badminton players have to take dozens of flights throughout the year and travel to and from many countries, adjusting to time differences. I have never seen a case where a badminton player, who suffers much more knee injuries than soccer, makes such an excuse and takes ‘early retirement’ from the national team.
National badminton players overcome a murderous schedule
After the Hangzhou Asian Games ended on October 8 last year, the national badminton team participated in the National Sports Festival starting on the 13th. Not long after, I played in the Korea Open. It’s literally a murder schedule. This is ridiculous abuse. However, players who play for the national team endure such a schedule every year. Even Korean professional players who receive annual salaries of 500 million to 1 billion won do not do that. There is no participation in the National Sports Festival. Female athletes do not need to aim to win the Olympics to receive military service benefits. It’s not like making a lot of money. Baek Ha-na, ranked 16th in badminton world money in 2023, and Lee So-hee, ranked 19th, played so many matches and won three competitions, but only earned about 300 million won each.
The pair of Kim So-young and Kong Hee-yong were ranked first in the world in 2022. He also won the 2023 All England Open. However, Kim So-young is suffering from injuries this year. She flies constantly and competes six days in a row to win one competition. After 50 to 100 breath-taking long rallies each game, they often end up on the court. I can’t help but live with my injuries.
Kim So-young is 32 years old and has been married for two years. Why wouldn’t she want to be a woman and a wife? She could just play comfortably for her team and get paid, and that would be enough. But she is putting her personal life aside to win her gold medal in Paris, following her bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. It’s only the Olympics.
Kyung-won Lee also did the same to compete in three Olympics. In addition, he is participating in his third Olympics after leading athletes who desperately want to represent the Olympic team for nearly 10 years. How much did this coach sweat during this time? How many tears were shed while sharing the players’ pain and frustration and caressing them?
Representing the national team is not a responsibility or obligation that athletes must bear towards the country and its people. If he doesn’t like himself, that’s fine. It is not something that anyone should force. However, as a player and a human being, representing the national team is a responsibility and obligation to oneself. Sports is a professional field and occupation that athletes choose because they like it and want to do it. Of course you want to be the best, right? Fierce competition on a big stage like the Olympics is why we exist as athletes. If a player is a player, he should naturally have the desire to have it.
If you want to exercise without the desire or will, just play it comfortably at a club or something like that. It is truly arrogant to think that you have played enough for your country and people. It is contradictory to quit playing for the national team because you don’t like it and still play for your own team. It’s the same game, but why do you avoid national team games? There will be no more valuable example than badminton coach Lee Gyeong-won to help players realize the meaning and value of the ‘Olympics’ and ‘national team’.
It is said that coaches are nameless beings and unpraised heroes. However, without his extreme love for his work, sacrifice, dedication, will, and tenacity, Lee Kyung-won would not have been able to spend that long as an unknown coach. Her life itself is the Olympics. She represents her country. She is a pillar of Korean sports. Now let’s remember ‘Coach Lee Gyeong-won’. Let’s give generous applause. She is Lee Kyung-won, a shining Olympic hero.
Professor Tae-Gyu Son
– ⓒMy Daily (www.mydaily.co.kr). Reproduction and redistribution prohibited.
2024-05-09 23:41:34
#손태규의 #직설 #Badminton #Lee #Kyungwon #Olympic #hero #female #coach #competing #6th #Olympics #dreams #winning #gold #medal
