2024-04-15 21:59:03
Judo star Ha Hyeong-ju (62), who dominated an era with the nickname ‘Big Feet’, has achieved many things in his life. At the age of 22, he won a gold medal at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, USA, and became a college professor at the early age of 25. He taught students at his alma mater, Donga University, for nearly 40 years, and has been working as an auditor for the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation since last year.
Until he entered middle school, his dream was to enter the Military Academy and become a soldier. The dream he had to give up when he entered the path of an athlete was achieved by his son and daughter becoming professional soldiers. In particular, after graduating from the Korean Military Academy, her daughter Haneul married Miles Gabrielson, a U.S. Army officer whom she met while serving in the ROK-U.S. Combined Division. They were the first Korean-American active-duty officer couple in history.
![Ha Hyeong-ju, who used to walk ‘barefoot’, was happier than winning the Olympic gold…[이헌재의 인생홈런]](https://dimg.donga.com/wps/NEWS/IMAGE/2024/04/15/124480715.1.jpg "Ha Hyeong-ju, who used to walk ‘barefoot’, was happier than winning the Olympic gold…[이헌재의 인생홈런]")
However, the best moment in his life was not winning an Olympic gold medal or being a university professor. His happiest moment was when he received a gift of shoes from his older sister in middle school.
Born in Jinju, Gyeongsangnam-do, he had particularly large feet since he was young. He currently wears 310mm shoes and has been famous for his ‘big feet’ ever since he attended Daea Middle School. At that time, students had to wear school shoes indoors, but the problem was that there were no shoes that fit his feet. So he went to school barefoot. He had to wear sneakers folded, so he kicked them barefoot when he played ball with his friends. The leadership team had no choice but to make an exception.
Then one day, my eldest sister, who was 10 years older than me, went to Busan’s Gukje Market and bought tax sneakers used by American soldiers. Ha Hyeong-joo said, “For the first time since she was born, she tried on shoes that fit her feet. “She was so good that for a while, she would hold my sneakers while eating and sleep,” he said. “My eldest sister was like heaven to me.” “Even when she was playing sports, she was the one who instilled the right spirit and values rather than her greed for medals,” he said.
It’s hard to imagine now, but it is said that until middle school, he had big feet but a skinny body. His body began to grow when he started wrestling at the end of his third year of middle school. He entered Jinju Commercial High School and learned wrestling in earnest, and his skills improved significantly. Jinju has long been famous for wrestling, and the late Choi Wook-jin (1960-2011) was his classmate at Jinju Commercial High School. He said, “I started wrestling later than my peers, but I was able to win them all in just a few months. He failed to defeat only one person, Wookjin. “Even now that I think about it, Wookjin was a truly outstanding businessman,” he recalled.
A few months later, he transferred to Busan Physical Education High School and switched to judo. The reason was, “If I’m going to exercise, I want to try an Olympic sport.” With judo combined with wrestling techniques, he quickly rose to the top of the judo world. By his sophomore year, he was winning national championships, and by his junior year, no one could compete against him. If he had not boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics, he might have won a medal at the 1980 Olympics instead of 1984.
He also competed in the wrestling event at the National Sports Festival. At the time, Busan Physical Education High School had a judo and wrestling team, but because there were no players in the heavy weight wrestling event, he, who was large, participated instead. At the National Wrestling Championships, where he participated after learning the simple rules, he won gold medals in both Greco-Roman and freestyle events.
There were episodes that occurred due to my large size even when I was attending Dong-A University. Having difficulty finding a partner to practice with, he chose a cypress tree on Gudeoksan Mountain behind the school as his practice partner. He honed his technique of striking a cypress tree more than 1,000 times a day.
But one day, a complaint phone call came to the university president’s office. A monk at a nearby temple said, “A student who is big and bulky is harming the tree.” The president explained the situation to the monk, summoned Ha Hyeong-ju, and gave him pocket money. Even when he later entered the Taereung Athletes’ Village, he continued to practice hitting the field leg against a tree.
The fact that he won the gold medal at the 1984 LA Olympics was the result of all of these processes coming together well. In particular, the wrestling techniques he learned were crucial when he started exercising. The biggest challenge at the LA Olympics was the match against then world number one Masato Mihara (Japan) in the quarterfinals. Ha Hyeong-ju used the throwing technique he learned from wrestling and slammed Mihara down on the mat. Although it was clear that it was ‘one round’, the referee declared ‘half’. Then Ha Hyeong-ju succeeded in throwing again, this time in the opposite direction. He received another half decision, but it didn’t stop him from winning.
The temptation for him, who returned home after winning an Olympic gold medal, was enormous. Since he was the face of the national team and even served as the flag bearer for the LA Olympics, and even won a gold medal, there were many business teams that wanted to hire him, and many companies that wanted to make commercials for him.
But what he chose was to go to graduate school. He said, “From the moment I entered Dong-A University, I vaguely thought I wanted to become a professor. “There were many temptations, but he did not waver at all,” he said. The gold medalist’s first pay stub he received as a graduate assistant in 1984 showed 135,000 won. After much preparation, he became a ‘professor’ at the young age of 25.
Although his dream of becoming a professor came true, he was still hungry for learning. Even though he stood on the podium, he desperately felt that he was inadequate in teaching his students. He said, “I was confident in Judo, but I lacked the ability to teach theory or other sports. “It was too embarrassing for him to receive a salary when he couldn’t even teach properly,” he said.
So, in the 1990s, he entered the doctoral program at Sungkyunkwan University and learned sports psychology again. He continued his days teaching students at Dong-A University in Busan and studying as a student at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul. He, who earned his doctoral degree in three and a half years, laughed and said, “At the time, I had to prepare for three days and three nights to teach three hours,” and added, “After spending a long time and continuing to teach, I can now easily teach three hours of class.”
While teaching students, he said he was waiting for the day when he could serve Korean sports. He said, “I received a lot of grace from the country, so I had a desire to volunteer for Korean sports someday,” and added, “I wanted to use my experience as an athlete to become the head of the Jincheon Athletes’ Village.” Then, an opportunity arose and he ended up working as an auditor for the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation. He said, “I think it is something that will help the entire nation live a healthy and happy life while enjoying sports,” and “As this is an organization born through the 1988 Seoul Olympics, we plan to implement policies that are in line with the spirit of the Seoul Olympics.”
When he lived in Busan, he maintained his health by doing light hiking. There are many mountains in Busan that are neither too high nor too low, such as Gudeoksan Mountain and Geumjeongsan Mountain. He said, “When I was in college, there was a house right below Gudeoksan Mountain where I wrestled with a cypress tree,” and added, “I climbed the mountain whenever I had time. “There were a lot of his friends around, so we would climb the mountain together and have a glass of makgeolli after coming down,” he said.
In Seoul, I got an officetel near the Olympic Park in Bangi-dong, Seoul, where I work. Thanks to this, I often walk here and there in the Olympic Park. I go for a 20-30 minute walk after lunch, and I also walk alone in the morning and evening. He said, “The Olympic Park is a great park that is hard to find in any country in the world,” and “If we add storytelling to this place and host interesting international competitions, it can develop into a more world-class luxury park.”
Reporter Lee Heon-jae [email protected]
2024-04-15 21:59:03