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Korea's first Olympic silver medalist dies at 85
Hong Soon-chun
By Kim Se-jeong
By Kim Se-jeong
Hong Soon-chun, a professor emeritus of Yong-in University and a former boxer who won South Korea's first Olympic silver medal at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics in Australia, died on Tuesday. He was 85.
The Boxing Association of Korea has not disclosed the cause of his death. Hong was last seen on Oct. 4 at the opening ceremony of the National Sports Festival. He was reportedly in a wheelchair, suffering pneumonia.
Born in 1934, Hong won the silver medal in the bantamweight men's boxing event at the Melbourne Games in 1956, a year after the Korean War armistice was signed.
His rival was Wolfgang Behrendt from Germany, and the sports community in Korea refuted the result, arguing Hong had fallen victim to racial discrimination by the referee.
Bae Soon-hak, former secretary general of the Korean Sports and Olympic Committee, wrote in his recent book that Behrendt had later sent Hong a personal letter acknowledging the referee's discrimination and “conceding” defeat.
Hong devoted the rest of his life to being an educator. He taught at Cheongju University in North Chungcheong Province and Yongin University in Gyeonggi Province.
He was also a founding member of the Korean Olympic Medalists' Association and served as chairman.