Kudos to Team Kim!

By Park Moo-jong

The ongoing PyeongChang Winter Olympics are undisputedly featuring, among others, the five "Kims," the ladies curling team of the Republic of Korea, who share the same surname (金).

Dubbed "garlic girls (마늘소녀)" as they are all from Uiseong County, famous for garlic production, the underdog Kims swept the world's favorites in "Chess on Ice" to compete for an Olympic medal for the first time in a semifinal today.

Mad for curling, the unmarried women aged 22 to 27, also all from Uiseong Girls' Middle and High School, a six-year secondary institution, have surged to become the darlings of the people.

Team Kim's sensational performance in their second Olympic appearance is a great comfort to the people sick of the latest security, economic and political unrest, making South Korea "tasty" despite such difficulties.

It is no wonder that a top online search word following the winning streak of Team Kim has been "garlic girls," which should be "garlic ladies" (마늘 처녀: unmarried woman) in light of their ages.

When it comes to garlic, Koreans are second to none in the world in enjoying the undisputedly healthy nutrient. Whatever food, there is almost always garlic as raw or cooked, not to speak of seasoning.

Food scientists, nutritionists and others recognize garlic's combined effects on reducing cholesterol and blood pressure, as well as its antioxidant properties that may protect against cell damage and ageing.

Furthermore, Korea has the birth myth featuring Dangun, the legendary founder of Gojoseon (2333-108 B.C.), the first kingdom of Korea, related to garlic. It goes: "Once upon a time there was a bear that wanted to become a human and asked the Lord of Heaven to listen to its prayer. The Lord told the bear to eat garlic, the sacred food, every day and keep out of sunlight for 100 days and the bear did to eventually become a woman.

Garlic was the secret. There is no reason why Koreans aren't jubilant over the female Olympians from the small garlic town with a population of 53,474 near Andong just north of Daegu.

In addition, what's amazing and attracts foreigners' curiosity about the Korean curling players is, of course, their surnames. They are all Kims, though they are not all from the same family. Two of the five are sisters, but all are graduates from the same school.

What a perfect team name, compared to other teams! And what a coincidence! But it is not that surprising.

The most common Korean family name is Kim, followed by Lee and Park. Together, these three surnames make up over half of the entire Korean population of a little over 50 million. There are only about 250 Korean family names currently in use.

According to a 2015 census, the 10 most common surnames in South Korea, including Kim, Lee and Park, accounted for about 65 percent. On its own, Kim is the last name for about 10 million.

Statistically, this means that one in five Koreans cheering for Team Kim at the Gangneung Curling Center were Kims too. Their coach and head of the team are also Kims.

However, each family name is divided into one or more clans and in order to identify a person's family name, the identification of the clan is needed.

There were also "The Three Kims" in Korean politics in the 1970s and '80s, who are two late presidents ― Kim Dae-jung (1924-2009) and Kim Young-sam (1927-2015) ― and former prime minister Kim Jong-pil (1926~).

But don't worry. Don't be confused. Given names are quite different, though there are "some" with the same names. But they are not so many such as John, David, Tom, Emma, Olivia and so on.

Kim (金) has also a very precious meaning: gold, pronounced not kim, but geum (according to the government's Romanization formula, not jium, but kum). So, the Kims are golden ladies and I hope they will have a big chance to harvest gold Sunday morning.

Since there are so many Kims in this part of the world, unfortunately there also exist unwelcome persons like the rogue leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, who is forever causing acute tension on the Korean Peninsula, by developing nuclear weapons and ICBMs targeting the U.S. mainland.

It's a consolation, however, that the young North Korean dictator sent a team to PyeongChang to ensure a perfect peace for three weeks at least, although it is still hard to figure out what is behind the North's participation in the Games.

The Kims are smart and witty as seen in their performance on the sheet of ice and in their choice of catchy English nicknames to help non-Koreans who may be struggling with their same surname.

They chose the nicknames on a whim over a breakfast, based on each member's favorite dish: the team skip Kim Eun-jeong is Annie (the name of a yoghurt brand), Kim Kyeong-ae is Steak, Kim Seon-yeong is Sunny, Kim Yeong-mi is Pancake and Kim Cho-hee is Chocho (from chocolate).

I hope that their "dreams" of becoming commercial film models for vacuum cleaner as good sweepers on ice will come true as has figure skating queen Kim Yuna, a darling of commercials.

Park Moo-jong is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily newspaper founded in1951 from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter since 1974. He can be reached at moojong@ktimes.com or emjei29@gmail.com.