A World Lifter
Sa Finds Gold After Career Full of Difficulties
By Sunny Lee
Korea Times Correspondent
BEIJING ― South Korea's Sa Jae-hyouk probably knows more about the phrase, ``carrying a heavy load,'' than most people.
For most people, that saying refers to dealing with the pressure of life.
For Sa, it has literal meaning.
As a weightlifter, Sa lifts as much as 50,000 kilograms daily as part of his training routine. All that heavy lifting paid off with him taking the gold medal on Wednesday in the men's 77-kilogram division at the Beijing Olympics.
Sa and China's Li Hongli each totaled 366 kilograms in their lifts, but the Korean won the gold because of his lighter bodyweight.
After Sa's victory, the audience erupted with a big roar. He quickly looked at his mother. Tears were trickling down her face. He also saw the touchy eyes on his father's wrinkled face.
Sa then knew that he made it.
Accidental Hero
Sa has been called an accidental hero.
Nobody in Korea expected him to win the gold medal in the Beijing Olympics because that hadn't happened to a Korean in men's weightlifting for 16 years.
Weightlifting was not Sa's crush, either. His mother was a distance runner, and Sa wanted to be a runner just like her. But then the grip of destiny suddenly changed the direction of his life.
Upon entering middle school in 1997, he was picked by a weightlifting coach, who was searching for athletes. The coach immediately recognized the potential of Sa, who wasn't tall, but was fit and strong.
Only one year into weightlifting, Sa grabbed the No. 1 spot in a national teenager weightlifting competition. That gave him a great feeling.
Sa slowly began to think that weightlifting might be what he was supposed to do in his life.
That feeling didn't last long.
Overcoming Injuries
While training in 2001, he sprained his right ankle, requiring surgery. Worse, the doctor told him he needed to rest for one year.
During the recuperation, Sa constantly had to fight against the urge to get out of his bed and lift the weights.
Upon entering college, he hurt his left shoulder and went through another surgery. The doctor told him to rest, but Sa didn't listen, remembering the itchy feeling he had when he was lying in bed after the previous injury.
He paid the price dearly for not listening to the doctor. He had to redo the same surgery on the same shoulder. The second surgery was much more painful.
Sa then realized that sometimes to achieve a dream, one has to wait, even if that meant doing nothing.
When his left shoulder was getting better, he sustained yet another injury on his right wrist. He had to go through surgery again, the fourth in his life. And this time, it made him scared about what he was doing. Sa was even thinking about giving up weightlifting.
People around him told him to take a long rest before taking up the barbell again. Sa followed the advice.
He rested double the usual period necessary for physical therapy.
The time off helped him.
Working for Success
When Sa went back to weightlifting, he felt much more motivated than before. He began to think about getting a gold medal in the Olympics. That was an ambitious dream. So, he didn't dare to tell anyone.
After all, Korea isn't a country known for weightlifting. The last time Korea had claimed a gold medal in the sport was at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when Jeon Byung-gwan claimed the gold in the 56-kilogram division.
But Sa found a way to succeed.
Every day, Sa lifted weights repeatedly. When he was done with his daily regiment, he did more lifting. He believed that to accomplish his dream, he needed to do more than what he was required to do.
He also kept telling himself that he was Olympic material. He did so because he didn't quite believe in himself.
The night before his Olympic match, Sa wrote in his Web blog, ``I am the barbell, the barbell is me. When we become one, I can lift more than 210kg. Sa, do you believe it?''
Sa then said, ``Yes, I believe it.''
Sa Jae-hyouk came into the Beijing Olympics as an afterthought, someone who had never won a world-level weightlifting competition in his life. But everything changed on Wednesday night. He won the gold.