17-Year-Old Prodigy's Unique Analogy: "Skateboarding Is Like Sleep"

[Anchor]

Yesterday, on the 27th, South Korea produced its first-ever Asian Games gold medalist in skateboarding. He is 17-year-old Kang Jun-i. At a press conference, he expressed his affection for the sport with a quirky yet profound analogy, saying, "Skateboarding is like sleep."

Reporting from the site, here is Hong Seok-jun.

[Reporter]

Overcoming two previous failures and completing a dramatic come-from-behind victory in his final, do-or-die third attempt to secure South Korea's first-ever gold medal in skateboarding, Kang Jun-i could not fall asleep until dawn due to the overwhelming lingering excitement.

[Kang Jun-i / National Skateboarding Team Member: I'm on my way here after catching barely two to three hours of sleep.]

He also shared the back story of how he burst into tears like a child upon seeing his mother right after the gold medal was confirmed.

[Kang Jun-i / National Skateboarding Team Member: With the feeling of, 'Mom, I finally did it,' I shed tears of joy thinking that I was now filial to my parents.]

Perhaps due to the nature of the sport, which demands creativity, when asked what skateboarding means to him, an entirely unexpected answer came back.

[Kang Jun-i / National Skateboarding Team Member: (Skateboarding is) probably like sleep. There are times when you don't want to sleep, but you still have to sleep anyway. Similarly, when tricks don't work out sometimes, you might not want to do it, but you still have to do it anyway.]

Growing up in a poor training environment and rising to the top by defeating world-class Japanese competitors, Kang vowed to stand at the highest podium at the Olympics two years from now as well.

[Kang Jun-i / National Skateboarding Team Member: (Japanese athletes) were walls that I felt I could never overcome, but my biggest goal is to create more difficult and somewhat complex tricks and land them all successfully at the LA Olympics.]

And he delivered a message of encouragement to those who have fallen down countless times just like him.

[Kang Jun-i / National Skateboarding Team Member: Still, I hope you will persevere and overcome it steadily, and if you just keep going as you have been doing, I think you will definitely achieve everything you want.]

Kang Jun-i, who has moved closer to his childhood dream of becoming the world's number one skater, is now sprinting toward another "gold-winning trick."

(Video by Park Jin-ho | Video Editing by Kim Jun-hee | Graphics by Hwang Se-yeon)

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