By Yoon Chul
Staff Reporter
The Vancouver Winter Olympics that ended last month left some upset when it came to the medal standings.
Canada grabbed a come-from-behind victory in the medal standings at the end of Games with the most gold medals, 14, ever in the Olympic history. Another winter sports powerhouse, Russia, collapsed, finishing 11th with 15 medals including three golds.
For Asian countries, fans saw Asia's No. 1 winter sports powerhouse Japan's crash as well as China's big push.
But those weren't as big as Korea's shocking fifth place with six gold, six silver and two bronze medals.
They stood atop the podium three times not only in short track event but also in speed skating.
Korean men and women generated gold not only in the men's 500 meters and women's 500 meters but also in the longest distance event, 10,000 meters.
Fans were definitely interested in the medalists, but many also followed their manager, Kim Kwan-kyu.
"Our athletes were already near world-class and aiming for the gold in the Winter Games. And we were helped by our long-time participation in the World Cup," Kim said in an interview with The Korea Times.
Korea started to send the skaters to the World Cup or overseas to train in 2004.
"Someone told me that the (Olymipic) results were thanks to me. I appreciate that but I don't agree.
"This result was produced by Korea. When some said 'We woke up early to cheer on our skaters on television and we also tried to do our best to support them,' those are the words that make me happy the most," Kim said.
The 43-year-old started to be in charge of team Korea in 2004 as head coach. Before his second Winter Games, he mentioned that the Games were a chance to generate multiple medals. But Kim also didn't expect his team to provide Koreans with such a big present.
Mo Tae-bum Was for 1,000 Meters
"I expected the 1,000-meter to go to Mo Tae-bum, rather than the 500 meters because there were the world No. 1 and No. 2, Lee Kang-seok and Lee Kyou-hyuk. But he skated really, really well.
"While the two Lees had huge a burden on their shoulder, Mo didn't. Mo was free from the pressure and I think that the different circumstance helped Mo grab gold," Kim said.
Mo brought home the first gold medal in the 500 meters and a silver in the 1,000 meters.
"I anticipated that the result of 1,000 meters would depend on the 500 meters, which was scheduled earlier than 1,000 meters.
"He followed just behind the two Lees, which helped him a lot. But he deserved to grab medals because he was one of the hardest training skaters and has a very competitive character," Kim explained.
After Mo held on to win medal after the Lees collapsed, there was thought that as the quality of the rink was not good, those who skated based on power could take advantage and beat those who skate based on technique. The coach disagreed.
"Some strong skater had better results than expected. But in the 500 meters, I think that quality didn't affect the race.
"To be honest, he is weaker at corners compared with the two Lees but Mo just skated really well. Mo's 100-meter lap time in Vancouver was his all-time best.
Rising Sang-hwa Extends Mood to Olympics
He also explained the gold medal of Lee Sang-hwa.
"No one expected a gold medal from Sang-hwa. As she just beat Jenny Wolf of Germany in the world sprint championships in Obihiro, Japan just before the Olympics, she gained self-confidence.
"In the first race I think Wolf didn't skate well while Lee raced as I wanted," Kim said.
In the first race Lee crossed the finish line with a time of 38.249 seconds and Wolf finished at 38.307 but in the second race German was .012 ahead of Korean (37.850).
"In the second race, Wolf's 100-meter lap time was 10.14 seconds, which was really good. If Lee's lap time was 10.30 she would have won the silver, but her record was 10.29. At that time I felt that she had a chance to grab gold," Kim continued.
"Lee skated really well.
"Sang-hwa was skating increasingly well, so I anticipated at least a bronze medal. The first consideration was her lap time in the 100 meters and she made it."
Seung-hoon Makes History
At the Winter Games, winning the 500 meters and 10,000 meters is like winning the 100-meter sprint and the marathon in the Summer Olympics. Korea achieved this in the Winter Games through long-distance skater Lee Seung-hoon.
"It could sound like I'm repeating myself, but it is true that Seung-hoon skated really well," the skating boss said.
"The first lucky thing was Lee's pairing was good for him.
"As Lee skated 12th in the 14 pairs, we decided to lead the race and went forward first. And his opponent, Bob de Jong of the Netherlands, was not fast in the early part of the race.
"For the medal we had to take a risk to keep Lee's pace and it worked.
"In the 10,000-meter race, Lee was amazing,"
In the longest race, Lee was one lap faster than his pair opponent passing Arjen van de Kieft of the Netherlands .
"But we saw the Dutchman for the first time and when I saw his training, I felt that he was not that strong. So I decided to let Lee take the lead in the race again.
"Seung-hoon stumbled a little in the middle of race. But he caught Kieft in the last lap," Kim said.
The coach also addressed the situation of the disqualification of world No. 1 Sven Kramer.
"We were only concerned about his lap time. And in that lap his lap time was very fast.
"It usually happens when the skater takes the wrong inner lane. So I was suspicious and asked the Japanese coach and he said Kramer had skated in the inner lane twice.
"To confirm the truth I moved to the referee.
"Before I reached the referee, he put index finger up, and I caught that Kramer had been disqualified," Kim said.
Though Kim generated three gold medalists, he never thought it was thanks to his leadership.
'I Am Not A Great Coach'
"It is a little hard to manage athletes who have totally different characters, together," Kim said.
"I often stimulated each one's competitive spirit. For instance I told Mo, 'When you do this, you can overwhelm Lee Kyou-hyuk, the world No. 2,'" Kim said.
"When I did, they put in more effort even if they were exhausted.
"In particular I knew a lot about Sang-hwa as I trained her when she was young. So I knew very well about her merit.
"I often forced her to train harder even if she told me that she was exhausted and I said, 'If you perform like this you will not grab a medal,'" he said.
"I treated each one differently. And whenever a coach pushes the athletes into hard work, a belief about the coach exists in their heart," Kim said.
His leadership definitely helped generate medals but he still finds things to fix in his teaching method.
"I should have given more compliments, but I failed to do this."
But he added, "Just before the competition, I usually emphasize their merit more and more to get confidence and said something that has to be reinforced," added Kim.
The head coach also revealed how they overcame a shortage of power.
"The only way we could overcome was tremendous quantity of training. It is definitely hard for the skaters who often got frustrated.
"In order to forget their annoyance, I changed the way of training very often not to be tired. I don't think this is my unique way for teaching," Kim said.
'We Have to Forget Glory of Games'
The all-time best team leader Kim also showed the blueprint of team Korea.
"I feel that lots of burden was on my both shoulder and I feel lots of pressure.
"My first consideration is not the next Olympics but the upcoming season. I will tell the skaters to throw the glory of the Vancouver Olympics in order to start from the scratch.
"We prepare and improve every year till the Sochi Olympics in 2014.
"In the short distance event, we can say Korea is one of speed skating powerhouses, now thanks to having some good skaters, which will run for a few next years.
"But in the long distance, we have only Lee Seung-hoon. We have to groom next generation skaters.
"And when there are many athletes, we can sustain our world class level for a long time. Powerhouse means they sustain their level even if some present star was eliminated.
"In Korea we don't have next generation even if in the short distance event," Kim said.
"If our top skater was eliminated, we may become the bottom dog.
"Improving present skaters like Mo, Sang-hwa and Seung-hoon for next Olympics is important but I think building next-generation is more important," Kim said.
"My first goal is making our skaters not to be disappointed as well as arrogant in the upcoming season.
"I will not give stress to them and just try to keep their position near the top," the Korean skating team boss Kim said.
yc@koreatimes.co.kr