The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics was the first Olympics where Korean archery made its debut. At the time, there were only individual men’s and women’s events, with no team events, but the Korean women’s team had a successful debut, with Seo Hyang-sun winning a gold medal and Kim Jin-ho winning a bronze medal.
And there was one more player on the women’s national team. She was coach Park Young-sook (64), who led the Bhutanese archery team at the Paris Olympics last month.
The reason his name is not well known to the public is because he is the only female national team member who did not win a medal. He suffered from a shoulder injury before the competition and finished in 17th place. Coach Park said, “I got injured while trying to increase the poundage of my bow during the Australian training camp before the Olympics. I had a hard time lifting my arm properly and had to eat with my left hand. Looking back, I wonder why I was so greedy back then.”
![‘Happiness Archery’ in Malawi and Bhutan instead of Italy… How Park Young-sook Finds Happiness[이헌재의 인생홈런]](https://dimg.donga.com/wps/NEWS/IMAGE/2024/09/23/130079557.1.jpg "‘Happiness Archery’ in Malawi and Bhutan instead of Italy… How Park Young-sook Finds Happiness[이헌재의 인생홈런]")
Although he did not have an Olympic medal, he was one of the early ‘famous archers’ of Korean archery. Korean archery first became known to the world when Kim Jin-ho won five gold medals at the 1979 Berlin World Championships. At that time, Park Young-sook won a gold medal with Kim Jin-ho in the team event.
He also won a gold medal with Kim Jin-ho at the 1983 Los Angeles World Championships, and a gold medal in the team event at the 1982 New Delhi Asian Games.
Director Park said, “The Berlin World Championships were held at the Berlin Stadium where Mr. Son Ki-jeong won the gold medal in the marathon at the 1936 Berlin Olympics,” and “Local compatriots brought a lot of food. I vividly remember local reporters rushing in all at once and asking, ‘What did you eat to be so good at archery?’”
The three women’s national archery team members who competed in the Los Angeles Olympics are now living wonderful lives in their own ways. Jin-ho Kim is a professor at Korea National Sport University, and Hyang-soon Seo runs an archery academy named after herself in the United States.
Director Park is also doing what he has always wanted to do. He is teaching archery in countries where archery is not popular. He said, “When I was about to retire, I was asked in an interview with a university newspaper, ‘What is your next dream?’” and laughed, “At the time, I said I wanted to go to a country that is struggling and teach archery. My life is actually going that way.”
He didn’t plan to live abroad from the beginning. After retiring as a player in 1987, he started his career as a coach, teaching elementary, middle, and high school archery teams in Korea. Then one day, he suddenly had the thought of becoming an ‘international referee.’
He immediately enrolled in an English academy in Jongno, Seoul. Learning English properly at the age of nearly 40 was not easy. At first, it was so hard to memorize even one English word. However, he persistently dug into English. As a full-time instructor for the Korea Archery Association, he would run straight to the academy after morning training and immerse himself in studying English. He said, “I swept all the English academies in Jongno and later went to an English academy in Gangnam to study.” In 2007, he went to London, England for a year to study English.
After much hard work, he passed the Asian continental referee exam in 2006, and finally received his international referee license in 2007. He made his debut as a referee at the World Championships held in Germany that year.
Learning English late in life opened up a new path for him. In 2009, he became the head coach of the Singapore national team, and the following year, in 2010, he became the head coach of the Italian women’s national team.
He was treated quite well in both countries, especially Italy, which had invested heavily in archery ahead of the 2012 London Olympics, and made an outrageous offer: “We will do anything if you let us compete in the London Olympics.”
He had talent, but he also had luck. The Italian women’s team he led won first place at the World Championships held in his home country that year.
The Italian men’s team, led by coach Seok Dong-eun, won the gold medal in the team event at the 2012 London Olympics. The women’s team did not win a medal, but achieved top-tier results.
The Italian federation naturally offered him a new contract, but he decided to take on a new challenge: taking charge of the Malawi national team, one of the poorest countries in Africa.
The treatment and conditions were incomparable to those in Italy. Since 2014, he has taught local children in Malawi for almost no pay. He said, “I was treated so incredibly well in Italy. After that, I decided that I should help struggling countries even without receiving any money,” and he laughed, saying, “I visited Malawi by chance, and the people and the environment were so great. I decided to volunteer for just one year, but it turned into two years, then three years.”
When he first arrived in Malawi, there were no newspapers or TVs. There was no proper equipment, so he made targets out of egg cartons and waste paper. He taught arithmetic to children who didn’t even know how to add 1 and 1 to calculate their scores.
Among the 10 or so children who learned archery from him, there was one child who was particularly quiet. The only English he could speak was “Good morning.” He was bullied by the other children. However, he was the most focused and the best at shooting arrows. That boy, named Aleneo David, competed in the individual archery event at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. He was the first athlete in Malawi’s history to compete in Olympic archery.
Director Park’s next destination was the ‘happy country’ Bhutan. The World Archery Association (WA) held a competition to find a leader to lead Bhutan, but it was difficult to find a candidate. At the time, the monthly salary offered by Bhutan was only $700 (about 900,000 won).
He hesitated at first, not because of the money, but because he was worried about altitude sickness. When he was staying in Korea for a while, the hospital he visited for chest pain advised him to ‘avoid taking airplanes and avoid high-altitude areas as much as possible.’
Still, he visited Bhutan for a field trip. He had to hike for two full days to get to the provincial city where the game was being held, and at the top of a peak, he was captivated by the breathtaking scenery he had never seen before. He didn’t have any altitude sickness, which he had worried about. That’s how he became the Bhutan coach.
In the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, a female athlete he coached became the first Bhutanese archery athlete to qualify on her own. And this year, he competed in the Paris Olympics with a male athlete. Both were far from medal contenders, but their appearance was a miracle in itself.
A few years ago, he had major surgery to remove part of his colon. The aftereffects of an appendectomy he had in middle school left his organs adhered, and part of his colon had to be removed. As a result, he lost over 10kg.
But he does what he wants, where he wants, and people around him often tell him, “You look a lot better.”
He cited ‘small meals’ and ‘comfortable mind’ as the reasons. Director Park said, “Bhutan is not very rich in food. Thanks to that, I eat small meals. I eat simple meals centered on vegetables and consume protein through eggs.” He also said, “Administrative work is much slower than in Korea. However, because the people and environment are good, I feel very comfortable mentally.”
He is able to communicate in English and is recognized for his leadership skills, and he is currently receiving coaching offers from many countries. Among them are European countries that offer good conditions. However, he plans to continue his coaching position in Bhutan for now. In the future, he plans to teach archery in countries that need help rather than developed countries.
Director Park said, “I don’t know how long I can work, but I want to spend my short life more meaningfully and do something meaningful,” and “When I reach a point where I can’t move my body properly, I want to volunteer through archery to places that need help, through online services.”
2024-09-23 20:55:16