Snowboarder aims high in his second Olympics

By Baek Byung-yeul

Kim Ho-jun

Snowboarder Kim Ho-jun admits he was an overwhelmed teenager at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. He hopes to leave a better impression at the upcoming Games in Sochi where he will represent the country in the men’s halfpipe.

While snowboarding is widely popular as a leisure activity here, the country has yet to have an above-average athlete in the sport. Kim vows to be the first. His goal at Sochi is to make it to the final round, which means he would have to finish within the top 16 of the 40 athletes in the competition.

By 2018, when the Olympics come to the Korean city of PyeongChang, Kim imagines himself as a 28-year-old with a realistic shot at Olympic hardware. Kim finished 26th in the halfpipe event in Vancouver.

"In Vancouver, I was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the competition venue and the capacity crowd. I loved that I made it to the Olympics as a 19-year-old, but I really wasn’t ready to show my best on that stage," Kim said in an interview with The Korea Times shortly before he left for Sochi.

"I expect my second Olympics to be different. The experience in Vancouver was critical for me in the mental aspect. Competing with world-class athletes also gave me a stronger sense of direction in improving my skills,” he said.

Kim is currently ranked 36th in the International Ski Federation (FIS) points list. He believes the number of athletes better than him is significantly less than 35.

"I have been preparing for the Olympics. The bigger picture of course is PyeongChang. There is no age limit in this sport and I am excited about what I could be doing if I continue to work hard and get better until I am 28.’’

Kim began skiing and snowboarding at the age of four because of the influence of his father, an enthusiastic winter sports fan and a ski-shop owner. He was competing at national events by the time he was in second-grade.

Kim made it to the national team in 2005 and began performing at international events, finishing fifth in the 2008 FIS Junior Championships and winning a silver medal at the Harbin Universiade in 2009.

Kim has been in good form ahead of the Sochi Games, finishing ninth with 67.25 points at the FIS World Cup in Finland in December.

He says he will like to be remembered as a trailblazer.

"I always like it when people call me the `first’ Korean snowboard Olympian because I am. But I want something more than that. I want an Olympic medal before I retire,’’ he said.