My left arm: how right-handed shooter won Asiad medal with left hand

Korean shooter Lee Won-ho poses with his silver medal won in the men's 10-meter air pistol event at the Asian Games at Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre in Hangzhou, China, Sept. 28. Yonhap

Korean pistol shooter Lee Won-ho does everything right-handed except for the one thing that he does for a living.

The 24-year-old is a natural right-hander who started out shooting from that side. But in 2017, during the final year of high school, Lee began experiencing involuntary spasms in his right hand and arm. Tremors at times were so violent that he had trouble eating with his right hand, let alone aiming his pistol at targets.

With multiple doctors unable to get to the root of the problem ― some even claiming it was nothing physical and was all between his ears ― Lee nearly quit shooting. But then his college coach Kwon Young-hee, who had earlier coached Lee in middle school, suggested his pupil switch to his other hand, hoping Lee's natural gift in shooting wouldn't go to waste.

In the summer of 2018, Lee threw himself into a weight training program to ensure that his left arm could hold steady with the pistol. Once he became comfortable shooting with his offhand, Lee made his left-handed debut in early 2019.

Some four years later, Lee became an Asian Games medalist, Thursday.

Lee grabbed silver in the men's 10-meter air pistol in Hangzhou, China, finishing with 239.4 points. Quang Huy Pham of Vietnam grabbed the gold with 240.5 points.

The final, featuring the eight best shooters from the morning's qualification phase, began eliminating contestants from the bottom after the 12th shot, until only Lee and Pham were left standing for the 23rd and 24th shots.

Korean shooter Lee Won-ho poses with his silver medal won in the men's 10-meter air pistol event at the Asian Games at Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre in Hangzhou, China, Sept. 28. Yonhap

Pham ultimately won, but Lee, despite competing in his first Asian Games, said he never had any doubt he would end up in a position to win gold.

"My plan all along was to be one of the last two men left. I absolutely planned to be on top," Lee said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency. "I figured the gold medal was going to be mine."

That kind of self-assurance allowed Lee to climb out of an early hole, after he'd scored only 47.6 points with his first five shots to rank dead last. He responded by scoring 51.9 points in his next five shots, which catapulted him to third place.

Lee stayed in the top three the rest of the way before coming up just short of Pham.

As for the source of his seemingly bottomless reserve of confidence, Lee said it dates to his high school days, when he was a fast-rising prospect before the right arm problems surfaced.

"Back then, I kept hearing things about how a man should always have sky-high confidence," Lee said with a smile. "I think the whole idea just became ingrained in my brain. I've always been a confident guy ever since."

Lee said his heart started beating faster once he took his position but it didn't take long for him to settle in and get into the flow of competition.

"It was a lot of fun," Lee said. "This felt just like any other domestic event."

Lee's confidence admittedly took a beating while he was trying to switch hands. He conceded Thursday that he still has to deal with bouts of self-doubt shooting left-handed, with his sunny disposition providing a nice cover at times.

Lee said holding the pistol is no longer an issue, because he has stuck with his weight-lifting routine. Having to see with his left eye, instead of the right one, has been a different story.

"I was so used to seeing targets with my right eye, and switching to the left eye has been the biggest challenge for me," Lee said. "I've been trying to fix this for four years and I am still not entirely comfortable."

In the entire field of 56 shooters Thursday, Lee was the only left-handed one. And in the final, Lee was assigned to Lane A to the far left, meaning he would stand facing all seven of his competitors.

Lee said he is already accustomed to the awkwardness of seeing other shooters' faces, adding, "Right now, I don't really find anything weird at all."

As a pistol shooter in Korea, Lee hopes he can follow in the footsteps of Jin Jong-oh, one of the sport's all-time greats. Jin won four golds and two silvers across five Olympic Games, and is the only shooter to have won three consecutive Olympic titles in a single event -- the men's 50m pistol. He still holds the world record in the 10m air pistol.

"It'd be nice if people started calling me the next Jin Jong-oh. That will mean I am doing something right," Lee said. "But I would rather people recognize me for who I am, not the second coming of anyone else." (Yonhap)