"Sangwook Oh: From Doubt to Glory – The Unveiling of Korea’s Fencing ‘Avengers’"

Hear from two-time Paris Olympics winner Sangwook Oh… The key to Korea’s ‘Appengers’ 3 consecutive defeats
Once I began fencing in my first yr in center faculty, I believed, ‘Sabre, I will not have the ability to win gold even after 100 years.’
With a tradition of passing all the pieces on to kids… ‘Westerner Yuri’ breaks established perception and rises to the highest of the world
I additionally inform my youthful kids all the pieces… I hope to satisfy my youthful kids within the finals of the primary competitions.

Oh Sang-wook, a two-time fencer on the Paris Olympics, stood in entrance of the digital camera at Yeonggwang Sportium in Jeollanam-do on the twenty first, when the President’s Cup Males’s and Girls’s Nationwide Fencing Championships and nationwide crew athlete choice competitors had been held . After the Olympics, Oh Sang-wook could not take a single day without work to shoot pictures, commercials, and TV leisure packages. He has a protracted schedule of video games scheduled till October, together with a nationwide crew choice competitors and the Nationwide Sports activities Competition. Oh Sang-wook stated, “I have been residing like this for 10 years and I do not really feel something. “Similar to folks go to work and say, ‘At the moment is a gathering,’ gamers say, ‘Now it is a competitors,'” he stated with amusing. Glory = Reporter Jeon Younger-han scoopjyh@donga.com

“Wow, good-looking. “Take an image collectively please.”

On the twenty first, Yeonggwang Sportium in Jeonnam, the place the President’s Cup Males’s and Girls’s Nationwide Fencing Championships and nationwide crew participant choice competitors are in full swing. Wherever Oh Sang-wook (28) went, he was inundated with requests for pictures and autographs. Oh Sang-wook, who got here to have his tools inspected the day earlier than the sport, stayed on the stadium for about six hours and smiled and took footage with everybody, from junior gamers to medical service personnel, who approached him and held out. their cellphones. Senior swordsmen had been additionally busy asking Oh Sang-wook, saying, “Be sure to take footage of my daughter” and “Signal extra autographs.”

A complete of 1,021 gamers are collaborating on this competitors, which has been held for the reason that seventeenth. This is a rise of just about 20% from 843 final yr. Now in its sixty fourth yr, that is the primary time that the variety of members on this competitors has exceeded 1,000. An official from the Korea Fencing Affiliation stated, “The variety of gamers collaborating is continually rising yearly. “Among the many three disciplines (epee, foil, and sabre), the variety of members in saber has elevated essentially the most,” he stated.

The Korean males’s saber crew ‘Avengers’ (Avengers + Fencing), together with Oh Sang-wook, gained gold medals within the Olympic crew occasion thrice in a row till the Paris Video games. Oh Sang-wook even gained the gold medal within the particular person occasion, making him the primary Asian fencer to win two Olympic gold medals. Oh Sang-wook stated, “Once I first began fencing in my first yr of center faculty (2009), I heard that ‘Korean fencing sabers is not going to win an Olympic gold medal even after 100 years.’ “He laughed.

The primary Korean fencing crew to win a gold medal on the Olympics was Kim Younger-ho (53), who gained the boys’s foil on the 2000 Sydney Video games. Lee Sang-gi (58) additionally gained a bronze medal within the males’s epee occasion on the one competitors. Nonetheless, saber was not related to an Olympic medal till the 2008 Beijing Video games.

The established concept was that sabers had been advantageous to Western gamers with lengthy legs and arms as a result of they might assault by stabbing or slicing the whole higher physique. Nonetheless, the Korean males’s nationwide crew broke this commonplace by profitable a surprising gold medal within the crew occasion on the 2012 London Olympics and holding the highest spot within the Worldwide Fencing Federation (FIE) crew rankings for the reason that 2016-2017 season.

Oh Sang-wook cited ‘a tradition of passing on all the pieces you understand about fencing to your youthful kids’ as the key. Sang-wook Oh was first chosen for the nationwide crew in 2014, when he was in his third yr of highschool, and shared a room with Jeong-hwan Kim (41), who was 13 years his senior. . Sangwook Oh stated, “Although we compete with one another, Junghwan hyung taught us all his data. “When a youthful baby asks, I additionally inform them all the pieces I do know,” she stated.

He stated, “I hope that the talents of the youthful crew will enhance rather a lot subsequent season. It isn’t good for youthful kids to step up when my abilities are low. We should rise to ‘world class’ collectively. That method, I can nonetheless strive to not lose to my youthful siblings. “My youthful kids shouldn’t attempt to keep in my shadow,” he added.

Within the 2014-2015 season, when Oh Sang-wook first joined the nationwide crew, the primary place within the FIE Saber particular person rankings was Koo Bon-gil (35), and the second place was Kim Jeong-hwan. Within the 2015-2016 season, Kim Jeong-hwan was the primary place, and within the 2016-2017 season, Koo Bon-gil gained the primary place. And within the 2018-2019 season, Oh Sang-wook was in first place. Older folks and youthful kids pushed and pulled one another to remain on high of the world.

Oh Sang-wook stated, “Once I first joined the nationwide crew, I believed that the boys who gained gold medals within the London Olympics had been so robust that I believed they had been ‘wall na we are able to overcome it.’ In reality, when a senior crew is in fine condition, a junior can not win. At first, I believed I may surpass my older brothers if I labored exhausting. Nonetheless, expertise and classification past the scope of coaching was required. “Particularly with Saber, they provide you 5 factors for those who slip, so it isn’t simple to show it over,” he stated.

He continued, “However the guys who had been so nice began to lose their abilities sooner or later. “When the ‘growing old curve’ hit my older brothers, my youthful kids who had been in fifth and sixth place persevered and had been in a position to get this far,” he stated “Even these on the high are come down.” In fact I’d too. “I hope the day will come after I can meet my juniors within the finals of a giant event quickly,” he stated.

Glory = Correspondent Lim Bo-mi bom@donga.com