Now that the Olympics are finally at an end, I feel that I can safely record my observations of Korea during the past few weeks. It's been an interesting experience, living in a small country with a number of famous athletes who were expected to do well in the games. Of course, the name on everyone's lips was Kim Yu-Na (and yes, the 'Yu' is in fact pronounced 'Yo'), and her gold medal in women's figure skating has been the only thing on my students minds even before it was awarded to her. Literally every other commercial on TV has Yu-Na in it, from chicken restaurants to make-up brands to KB bank. The only comparison I can make is that Yu-Na seems to be to Korea what Hello Kitty is to Japan, and though I have yet to see her in an advertisement for the Korean Army, I'm sure its only a matter of time.
Not to suggest in any way that she doesn't deserve this honor. Yu-Na has been in training practically all her life, thanks to an overbearing, former pro-skater mother and her own natural ability. She trained in Canada even while her parents were living in Korea, and managed to make it through the Olympics without them even flying in to see her skate. I don't know many 19 year olds who would be so capable as she has proven to be. What I find interesting about the figure skating competition is not Yu-Na, however, but the lesser known Canadian skater Joannie Rochette. Of course, almost everyone knows her story by now--how her mother died only a few hours after landing in Vancouver to see her daughter compete; how she went back to training the next day; and how she shocked the world by delivering an emotionally stunning and beautiful performance in both the short and long program dances to win a bronze medal. As much support as I have seen for Kim Yu-Na over the past few months, recently there has been a strong showing for the Canadian skater as well. I heard a number of my students talking about how they really hoped that she would take the silver medal in the event (after all, there can't be two golds...). There have even been a number of short commercials wishing Joannie and her family comfort during this terrible time. It was very uplifting to me to see such a show of compassion during such a nationalistic event as the Olympics.
Which, of course, completely conflicts with the other thing I noticed about these winter games. Now I don't know how different I am from the rest of you dear readers, but I can name maybe a dozen current American Olympic athletes, and only one of those is from the winter games. So I had no idea who Apolo Ohno was until I came to a country that really, truly despises him. For those of you who have no idea who I'm talking about, Apolo Ohno is a speed skater who has competed in various events for the past three winter Olympic games. I've also heard something about him being on "Dancing with the Stars," but as I myself am an infrequent watcher of TV, I have no idea if that's true or not. The point is, in the 2002 games in Salt Lake City, Ohno was competing in the Men's 1000m when he raised his arms in protest of an allege illegal block by the competitor from South Korea, Kim Dong-Sung. Kim was disqualified, allowing Ohno to take the gold. Whether or not Kim actually did illegally block the lane doesn't really matter. This has resulted in an endless amount of hostility directed towards Ohno, including a large number of death threats that forced him to withdraw from the 2003 World Cup competition that was to take place in South Korea. It didn't help that at the time Ohno was something of a smarmy jackass who just smiled and encouraged the hostility, but on a personal note, it also probably didn't help that he's half Japanese. I'm not going to get into anything there though....
So here we are in the 2010 games and Apolo Ohno has made it to the medal race along with two racers from Korea: Lee Jung-Su and Lee Ho-Suk (no relation, I think...). The Korean racers managed to hold on to their lead coming into the final lap and won the gold and silver medal, respectively, despite Ohno's comeback from a slip with less than three laps remaining. A proud moment for the South Korean people, to be sure. However, instead of being proud of the accomplishments of their athletes, more often than not I find people who are upset that Ohno won any medal at all. They would rather be upset that he was rewarded in any way than happy that two of their competitors acheived the highest (and second highest) honor in their sport. I don't know how to put in to words how that makes me feel, but it's not a happy feeling.
All in all, I will miss the games. We had some interesting conversations between the American and Canadian teachers when the US hockey team beat the Canadians during the preliminary matches. I'm going to hate to see what the attitudes are like when we go back to work tomorrow.
