Sohn Kee-chung &#8212; 1936 Berlin Olympic marathon winner

Korea’s Sohn Kee-chung crosses the finish line to win the gold medal in the marathon at the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936. He had to run as a Japanese “national” because Korea was then under the Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945). / Korea Times file

By Andrei Lankov

The opening ceremony of the Seoul Olympic Games was held on Sept. 17th in 1988. Thousands of people gathered at the Seoul Olympic Stadium, waiting for the arrival of the Olympic torch. After its airborne trip from Athens to Jeju island, the southernmost tip of the Korean Peninsula, it had travelled 4,168 kilometres, zigzagging its way through the country. Some 1,467 Korean torchbearers took part in the marathon. And now it was time for the climactic final.

The torch was carried into the Stadium by a man in his 70s, still sprightly and fit. Few failed to recognize him. It was Son Ki-chǒng, the greatest sporting hero in all Korean history and a person who can be described as a living symbol of Korea’s pride and determination.

His day of fame had come almost half a century earlier, on Aug. 9th, 1936. This was the day of the marathon competition in Berlin where the 11th Olympic Games were held.

1936 was one of the darkest years in the history of the last century. The Western economy had nearly collapsed under the weight of the Great Depression. China was torn by civil war and the ever-increasing Japanese aggression. Russia, where a few millions peasants had just been starved to death, was in the midst of some bloody purges. Korea was on the eve of the most repressive period in its colonial history: the colonial administration was moving from an apartheid-style policy of earlier periods to the strategy of forced assimilation. So the Olympic gold medal, the first Olympic medal to be won by a Korean athlete, attracted much attention in the country, and made the winner into a universally admired celebrity.

This is a Greek bronze helmet marathoner Sohn received along with the gold medal in 1936. The helmet was donated by Sohn to the National Museum of Korea and is on display there. It is registered “National Treasure No. 904.”

/ Korea Times

The Olympic hero Son Ki-chǒng was born in 1912 in the city of Sinuiju which sits on Korea’s border with China (nowadays it is in North Korea). The family of the future celebrity was poor. At an early age he had to withdraw from school, since his family could not afford to pay tuition, and spent some time as a street vendor (Korea’s first Olympic champion was peddling melons and sugar cubes).

Soon afterwards, his financial situation improved enough to resume studies. Son was 16 when he competed at a school race and won with a spectacular result. A friend suggested him to try long-distance running, including marathon. He followed the advice and soon was competing in events which were held across Korea and sometimes in Japan as well.

In November 1935, while taking part in an official competition in Tokyo, Son achieved remarkable success. He ran a marathon in 2:26:42. This was the world record and it is remarkable that this world record held for over a decade, until 1947 when this result was exceeded in Boston by Son’s trainee Sǒ Yun-bok (unlike Son Ki-chǒng, Sǒ Yun-bok never made it to Olympic gold, though). This success made certain that he would become a member of the Olympic team which was to compete in Berlin at the 1936 Olympic Games.

Korean athletes first competed at the Olympic Games in 1932, but without much success, so a triumph of Korean runners in 1936 was completely unexpected.

Needless to say, in 1936 all Korean athletes were forced to compete as Japanese nationals. Son Ki-chǒng was registered under the Japanized name of Son Kitei – this is how the three Chinese characters of his name are pronounced in Japanese. Incidentally, it took decades for the International Olympic Committee to correct its official records and change Son’s nationality from Japanese to Korean, but even now some websites contain references to “Son Kitei of Japan” as the winner of the 1936 Olympic marathon race.

The 1936 Olympic marathon was dramatic. The initial favourites were young Juan Carlos Zabala from Argentina, a winner of the 1932 Games, and Ernie Harper, a three-time Olympian and one of Britain’s greatest distance runners. After 33 kilometres Zabala who led the race suddenly gave up. Soon it became clear that there were only three competitors fighting for the Olympic gold ― and, to everybody’s surprise, two of them were Koreans.

It was Son Ki-chǒng who won the race with a result of 2:29:19. This was not his best result, but it was still sufficient to win him the gold medal. Son was followed by Harper. Another Korean athlete, Nam Sǔng-yong came third, a mere 19 seconds later than Harper, with a result of 2:31:42. Thus, the 23 year-old Son Ki-chǒng became the first Korean to win Olympic gold while Nam Sǔng-yong brought home the first Korean bronze.

Apart from the medal, Son was given an unusual present, too. He was presented with a Greek bronze helmet which was discovered near Corinth in 1875. Judging by the style, the helmet was produced by Greek artisans around 750 BC. For some reason, the helmet was left for safe-keeping in Germany. Only few decades later, in the 1980s, it was delivered to Korea.

And there was a very important epilogue to Son’s triumph. It took two weeks for the pictures depicting his victory to arrive in Seoul. When the readers of the Tonga Ilbo, an influential Korean daily, opened its Aug. 25 issue, they were presented with the picture of Son Ki-chǒng. But on his shirt they did not see the Japanese “Rising Sun” flag he was supposed to sport (and, as a matter of fact, did).

When the picture arrived in Seoul, the Tonga Ilbo editors decided to challenge the authorities: they ordered the picture to be retouch so as to eliminate all traces of the Japanese flag from Son’s shirt. The idea came from the then head of the Tonga Ilbo’s sports department, but found enthusiastic support in the editorial office.

The journalists and editors knew that they were taking a risk. Indeed, eight people ― most of them heads of the newspaper’s departments ― were arrested and five were found guilty of “subversive propaganda.” After the incident the newspaper remained closed for almost a year.

This was not an isolated incident as articles written by Son himself were clearly nationalist in spirit and tone. Even in the worst of the colonial times he stressed his identity as a Korean, not as a subject of the Japanese empire.

And what happened to our Olympic heroes? Fame might be hard to handle, especially when it comes to young people. Only too often the short moment of glory is followed by years of meaningless existence. Fortunately, this was not the case with both Son Ki-chǒng and Nam Sǔng-yong.

They both enjoyed a very long life. Son graduated from Meiji University in Japan, worked as a Korean Olympic team coach and eventually became the Chairman of the Korean Sporting Association. Nam Sǔng-yong also worked for this agency. As mentioned, Son trained another world champion in marathon running, Sǒ Yun-bok, as well as a number of first-class Korean athletes. Son Ki-chǒng did much to promote a healthy lifestyle and physical exercise.

Son and Nam lived long enough to see Korea emerging as a major sporting power. Nam Sǔng-yong died in Seoul in 2001, at the ripe old age of 89. Son Ki-chǒng lived with his daughter near Seoul until his death in 2002, in the age of 90. The ancient bronze helmet, once a special trophy for a marathon winner, was donated by Son to the National Museum of Korea and is on display there, being registered “national treasure #904”.

Prof. Andrei Lankov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and now teaches at Kookmin University in Seoul.