Taekwondo player keeps promise for her mother

Taekwondo player keeps promise for her mother. August. 19, 2016 07:16. by 리우데자네이루=황규인 기자. Her mom closed her eyes and prayed. As she was burying her face for praying, she could not see her daughter make a 6-4 come-from-behind victory with a successful head attack. When Koreans around her shouted “wow,” she opened her eyes and cheered. Her eyes were wet with tears. Her daughter, Kim So-hee, passed the quarterfinals in women’s 49kg weight class in the Rio Olympics with the only one attack.

Park Hyun-sook, Kim’s mother who runs a snack bar in Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province, to support her daughter, made her first overseas trip to Rio. Kim kept her promise that she had made when her mother finally allowed her to become an athlete after opposing it for three years. “I’ll take you to an overseas trip," Kim had said. On her way to Rio, the mother spent a night in Paris. Unlike her husband who did not like the local food and ate just a few pieces of French fries, Park ate everything deliciously because she thought her daughter could perhaps be worried if the mother could lose appetite.

For her daughter, she took a seat in the darkest area on the second floor. “I decided to sit here because she might see us and make a mistake," the mother said. "I saw her play many times, but my heart pounds so hard this time.” When the semifinal match started, she waved the Korean national flag in her hand, but not sure she waved it because she rooted for her daughter or her hand began to tremble.

When the 0-0 tie continued until the third round in the semifinal, Park shouted, “Watch your head!” and “You should’ve dodged!” When the match was extended, she was more nervous than her daughter and covered her eyes with the flag. In Taekwondo, whoever wins a score first wins in overtime. Park stood up and waved the flag again. It was 36 seconds before the end of the extended match. Kim So-hee won again and was sure to win at least a silver.

In the final match, she became a cheer leader. When she heard “Kim, Kim, Kim!” among Brazilian spectators, she called “So-hee, So-hee, So-hee!” When she shouted “Go go, Kim So-hee!” Brazilian fans shouted “go go!” too.

“Before coming to Rio, So-hee wanted to go fishing with her dad and he took a day off. But it rained all day long and they could not even cast a fishing rod," Park said. "So-hee probably wanted to spend time with her parents before the Olympics, and I felt sorry for not being able to do what she wanted. When we are back to Korea, we’ll go fishing first.”