Kim Min-young Wins Kurash Gold, Making History Despite Poor Training Conditions

Without joint training camps, it was difficult to spar with various training partners or receive consistent coaching from professional instructors.

Nevertheless, Kim Min-young (21, Korea National Sport University) proudly delivered South Korea's first-ever Asian Games gold medal in kurash.

Kim defeated Ssu-lu-ling of Chinese Taipei 5-0 in the final of the women's over-87kg division at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held at the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium in Nagoya, Japan, today, claiming the top spot.

With this victory, South Korean kurash secured its first gold medal eight years after the sport became an official Asian Games event at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games.

Following Mo Su-min (Korea National Sport University), who earned South Korea's first-ever medal by a female athlete with a silver in the women's 78kg division yesterday, Kim stood at the highest step of the podium today.

South Korean kurash won one silver and two bronze medals at the 2022 Hangzhou Games.

Although Kim and Mo added a gold and a silver medal respectively in this tournament, the preparation process was far from smooth.

The kurash national team was unable to hold joint training camps ahead of the competition.

The athletes struggled to find training partners and had limited access to management and coaching from instructors.

While athletes trained individually, the head coach and coaching staff visited training locations to provide guidance or checked on their physical conditions over the phone.

Kim, who was able to train at her university, was in a relatively better situation.

"Kurash improves the more training partners you have, so training individually was challenging," she confessed. "Thanks to the efforts of the association president and people around us, we managed to train together somehow."

Despite the difficult conditions, Head Coach Kim Mingyu, a silver medalist at the 2022 Hangzhou Games, believed in Kim's talent.

"Although she is in the heavyweight division, she has relatively fast speed and confidence," the coach said. "Her strength is actively attempting techniques in actual matches."

Kim, who began her career as a judo athlete in high school, was introduced to kurash at the recommendation of a professor after entering university.

Having learned kurash for just over a year, she won the women's over-87kg division at the Asian Championships last year and achieved consecutive titles by winning this year's tournament as well.

Kim, who balances two sports, will compete as a judo athlete in the 107th National Sports Festival to be held in Jeju next month.

The Asian kurash champion is now challenging for the national top spot in judo as well.

In November, she will challenge for the world summit at the World Kurash Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan.

"I will continue to achieve great results in both judo and kurash," Kim said with a smile. "I would appreciate it if many people showed interest in the thrilling sport of kurash."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.