Gold medalist shoots for berth in Beijing
1992 Olympic gold medalist Yeo Kab-soon is gunning for her second Olympic berth. By Yang Guang-sam
On a warm spring day this week, it still felt chilly inside the shooting range at the Korea National Training Center at Taeneung, northern Seoul. Among some dozen shooters aiming at the target, one familiar face stood out.
It was 16 years ago that Yeo Kab-soon, then an 18-year-old high school student, snatched Korea’s first ever Olympic shooting gold medal. Now 33 and married with a child, Yeo is shooting for her second Olympics.
At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Yeo was the darling of the nation. The teenager picked up Korea’s first shooting gold and also the first gold medal of the 1992 Games. She upset favored Bulgarian sharpshooter Vesela Letcheva in the women’s 10-meter air rifle event. Yeo proved her Olympic performance was no fluke, finishing second at the air rifle event at the 1993 International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup in Munich, Germany.
But over the next several years, the Olympics proved elusive. At the Olympic trials for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Yeo missed making the team by one point.
“After winning the Olympic gold, I lost my sense of purpose,” Yeo recalled. “It was such a huge win that it took a lot out of me. And after I missed out on the 1996 Games, I entered a deep slump.”
Yeo missed the 2000 Olympic trials because she was pregnant with her first son, Min-soo. And for the next Olympic trials, she fell short once again.
But Yeo is back again for another crack at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in August. She credits support from her family, and it helps that her husband, Kim Se-ho, is the shooting team head coach for the Korea National Sport University.
“It hasn’t been always easy to focus on the sport and take care of the family at the same time,” Yeo said. “Fortunately, my husband and my in-laws have been there for me as I try to reach the Olympics.”
Yeo said Min-soo, now a second-grader, is proud of his her and aspires to become a shooter himself someday.
“I would rather not have him get into this sport; it’s just not that mainstream,” Yeo said with a smile. “But if he really wants to do it, and if he shows some talent, I’d be fully supportive.”
Regarding her own future, Yeo said that retirement from her sport has never entered her mind.
“As long as I think I can compete, I will still be on the range,” Yeo said. “I plan on shooting into my 50s.”
The Olympic trials run from April 27 to May 13, and 92 shooters will vie for two Olympic berths. Yeo is the oldest participant, but she remains passionate about her sport.
Yeo is traveling to Brazil on Friday to compete at the 2008 ISSF World Cup in Rio de Janeiro. In order for a shooter to compete at the Olympics, the athlete must shoot a minimum qualification score (MQS) for their respective event at an ISSF-supervised championship during the four years between Olympic Games. For Yeo’s 10-meter air rifle discipline, the MQS is 375.
“Obviously, the goal is to make it to the Olympics,” she said. “I want to travel to Beijing with my boy.”
By Oh Myung-chul JoongAng Entertainment & Sports/ Yoo Jee-ho Staff Reporter
[jeeho@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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