"Olympics and ranking are no big deal, you can do it too!" Confident Kim Yu-jin was as cheerful as a golden kick

Aug 09, 2024

South Korea's Kim Yoo-jin won the gold medal with a 2-0 victory over Kiyanichande (Iran) in the final of the 57kg Taekwondo class at the Paris Olympics held in Grand Palais, Paris, France on the 9th (Korea time). Kim Yu-jin is holding up the gold medal. Paris (France) = Reporter Chung Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2024.8.9/

South Korea's Kim Yoo-jin won the gold medal with a 2-0 victory over Kiyanichande (Iran) in the final of the 57kg Taekwondo class at the Paris Olympics held in Grand Palais, Paris, France on the 9th (Korea time). Kim Yu-jin is cheering. Paris (France) = Reporter Chung Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2024.8.9/

"It's not a big deal!" I didn't even care about the ranking."

The interview with Kim Yoo-jin (Ulsan Sports Council) was as refreshing as a shootout.

Kim Yu-jin (24, Ulsan Metropolitan City Sports Council, world No. 24) won the gold medal at 4:37 a.m. on the 9th (Korea time) in the women's 57kg taekwondo final at the Paris Olympics held in Grand Palais, Paris, France, with a round score of 2-0 (5-1, 8-0) against Nahid Kiyanichande (Iran). It is the first valuable medal in 16 years since Lim Soo-jung at the 2008 Beijing Games.

South Korea's national taekwondo team Kim Yu-jin advanced to the final by beating world No. 1 China's Luo Zongx in the women's 57 kg class semifinal match at the 2024 Paris Olympics held in Grand Palais, Paris, France on the 8th (Korea time). Kim Yu-jin is attacking. Paris (France) = Reporter Chung Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2024.8.8/

Kim Yu-jin's gold medal was a series of seal breakers. In the round of 16, he beat the Tokyo bronze medallist Hatizé Ilguin of Turkiye, 2-0 (7-57-2), and beat the quarterfinals 'world fourth'S Skyla Park 2-0 (7-69-5). In the semifinals, China's Luo Zhengx, who has won the world's No. 1 Asian Games for two consecutive years, was defeated 2-1 (7-0 1-7 10-3). The final was also overwhelming. The sharp shoot and bold head attack from the long limbs of 1m83 were brilliant.

Kim Yu-jin's journey to Paris was turbulent. The Korea Taekwondo Association decided to challenge the women's 57kg Olympic ticket in January, and decided to participate in the Asian trials for Kim Yoo-jin through an internal selection in February. Kim Yu-jin won a ticket to Paris, which will give her the top two spots in each weight class, at the Asian Trials held in Taiwan, China in March. Kim Yoo-jin's name was not even mentioned as a medal candidate. But the ranking was just a number. Kim Yoo-jin, who ranked third in the 2023 Loma Grand Prix and won the Asian Championship, won the gold medal in her first career Olympics.

In a post-match interview, Kim Yoo-jin smiled broadly, saying, `I'm so happy and I want to tell myself that I did so well because I contributed to my personal honor and my pride in Jongju-guk. I'm so happy today.' "If I look back on the process I've been doing so far, I can't get this close," he said, challenging himself. I was really happy to participate in the Olympics and I decided to enjoy it. I think I did a good job because I was confident in myself because I made it so hard to prepare."

South Korea's national taekwondo team Kim Yu-jin is cheering after beating world No. 1 China's Luo Zongx to advance to the final in the women's 57kg semi-finals of the 2024 Paris Olympics held in Grand Palais, Paris, France on the 8th (Korea time). Paris (France) = Reporter Chung Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2024.8.8/

He became an Olympic gold medalist with taekwondo, which he learned using self-defense techniques at his grandmother's recommendation that he should be able to protect himself as a child. The face I wanted to see the most at the moment of the gold medal was also my grandmother. "Grandma, I finally won a gold medal! Thank you so much for letting me do Taekwondo!"

When I brought up breaking the seal, Kim Yoo-jin said "I'm not that good because I'm ranked high. Honestly, I didn't even care about that at all." "I think I just corrected myself with the idea that I shouldn't just collapse."and revealed the secret to the gold medal.

No one knew her gold medal, but she knew for herself. "It's not a twist for me. I was warming up today and my body was so good that I thought to myself, 'I'm going to work'," he said with a smile. "Today was the best day for my body while doing Taekwondo." Asked how hard he had trained, he immediately answered "I want to quit the exercise. "I trained three baths a day. Every time I went out, I felt like I was going to hell. I'm sure every player did, but I really pushed myself to the end. I think I kicked more than 10,000 times a day, two hours at a time"I looked back. In order to maintain a height of 1m83 and a weight of 57kg, there is no way that there is no pain of extreme weight loss. "I eat one meal a day. If you eat properly, you eat one meal and focus on your diet. I succeeded in controlling my weight this time by adjusting my weight in advance, and I managed my physical strength well. I think the gold medal was a great virtue" he analyzed. When asked what he wanted to eat the most after winning the gold medal, he seemed to have waited "Pork belly with soybean paste!cried " "I don't even remember when I ate pork belly." After pushing himself to the end with aerobic fitness exercises and taekwondo skills training, he endured the hard time by supplementing his calories with chocolate whenever he had a hard time. As for the secret to losing weight and maintaining condition at the same time, Kim Yoo-jin said, `I tend to work out hard. If you exercise hard, you lose weight and manage it. I eat a lot of chocolate, too. Eating something high in calories and working out hard to lose weight, he explained.

South Korea's Kim Yoo-jin won the gold medal with a 2-0 victory over Kiyanichande (Iran) in the final of the 57kg Taekwondo class at the Paris Olympics held in Grand Palais, Paris, France on the 9th (Korea time). Kim Yu-jin is flying the Korean flag. Paris (France) = Reporter Chung Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2024.8.9/

In the first gold medal in 16 years, in the representative weight class of South Korea's women's taekwondo, Jung Jae-eun at the 2000 Sydney Games, Jang Ji-won at the 2004 Athens Games, and Lim Soo-jung at the 2008 Beijing Games were succeeded by Kim Yu-jin. It is South Korea's 13th gold medal at the Paris Olympics and the most medal ever. Now I have a bigger dream. Kim Yoo-jin said, `My goal is to challenge the LA Olympics and become a representative of the world championships next year. I want to win the Asian Games gold medal and achieve the Grand Slam." With consecutive gold medals by Park Tae-joon on the 8th and Kim Yoo-jin on the 9th, the mood of the national taekwondo team is at its peak. Kim Yoo-jin said "The atmosphere is good because Tae-jun started well yesterday, and I'm sure the rest of the players will do really well as well." Earlier in the day, Park Tae-joon volunteered to be Kim Yoo-jin's partner in Dalian, giving him a golden energy. "Taejun took turns holding both hands even though he hurt one hand. Thank you so much. Tae-jun said, "It's not a big deal, so I just wanted to enjoy it, but that really touched my heart."

'What is world ranking to Kim Yu-jin?It's not a big deal! Ranking is just a number." I asked for a word to numerous juniors who were wondering if this path would be right or if they were doing well now, and if they should stop putting it down. A very cool word came back. "Olympics is no big deal! You can do it, too!"

sky4us@sportschosun.com