Boccia Seo Min-gyu wins first match 5-2
Born prematurely with brain damage… Hold on tight to the wheelchair to keep from shaking
Calluses on the left hand, not the one throwing the ball… “I was stressed out in the first game, but I shouted, ‘Fighting!’”
If you look at the calluses on his left hand, you can tell he is not a veteran player. In fact, he is the only teenager among the 83 Korean national team players who participated in the Paris Paralympics. This is the story of Seo Min-gyu (19, pictured), the ‘youngest’ member of the Korean team.
In any sport, right-handed players tend to have more calluses on their right hands. Seo Min-gyu, a boccia player, is right-handed, but he has calluses all over his left hand. This is because he throws the ball with his right hand and holds his wheelchair with his left hand as tightly as he can. Lim Gwang-taek, the coach of the Korean boccia team, explained, “A boccia player cannot throw the ball accurately if his body is not stable. Min-gyu uses the strength of his palm to overcome his physical disadvantage.”
Boccia is a sport that seems to be a combination of marbles and curling. The game is played by throwing six balls per end, and the player (team) who gets the ball closer to the target ball scores a point. There is only one criterion for Seo Min-gyu’s sport, BC2, which is ‘you must throw the ball with your hands only.’ Athletes sitting on the floor only need to focus on throwing the ball, but players sitting in a wheelchair must hold the wheelchair wheel with their left hand to avoid changing direction.
Seo Min-gyu, who was born prematurely, spent 102 days in an incubator on a respirator before he could be held in the arms of his mother, Kim Eun-hee (43). Seo Min-gyu, who suffered from brain damage during this process, started playing boccia in 2012 at the recommendation of a special class teacher when he was in the first grade of elementary school. In the first year he started playing boccia, Seo Min-gyu showed his potential by winning a silver medal in the team event at the National Disabled Students Sports Festival, and became a national representative at the age of 18 last year.
It is as difficult for a Korean disabled athlete to become a national boccia representative as it is for a non-disabled athlete to become a national archery representative. Just as the non-disabled archery team has won 10 consecutive Olympic women’s team events, the Korean boccia team is also aiming for its 10th consecutive Paralympic gold medal in Paris. Seo Min-gyu won a gold medal in the team event at the Hangzhou Para Asian Games last year, where he participated wearing the Taegeuk mark.
Seo Min-gyu’s mother, who won a gold medal with him as an assistant coach in Hangzhou, is also by her son’s side at the Paris Paralympics. Seo Min-gyu said, “My mother is the driving force behind my success,” and “She raised three children on her own. I feel sorry and grateful that she devoted herself to me after I started exercising.”
Seo Min-kyu took his first step toward the Paralympic gold medal by winning 5-2 over Francis Rombouts (40, Belgium) in the first match of Group B of this competition. Seo Min-kyu shouted “fighting” several times as if he would not be intimidated in this match, which was his Paralympic debut.
Seo Min-gyu said, “Honestly, I felt pressured. I thought that I had to shout ‘Fighting’ to get the mood going. I really want to stand on the Paralympic podium representing Korean boccia,” and “I hope that Paris, where my favorite soccer player Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain) stays, becomes the ‘land of opportunity.’” His mother, Kim Eun-hee, said, “I neglected my two younger siblings while taking care of Min-gyu. When Min-gyu stands on the podium, I think many scenes will flash through my head like a panorama.”
Paris = Reporter Kim Jeong-hoon [email protected]
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2024-08-31 17:44:19