Kim Yuna, An San feature in IOC video celebrating female Olympians

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Published: 31 Mar. 2022, 17:21

Kim Yuna, An San feature in IOC video celebrating female Olympians

An San appears in the IOC video "Celebrating Women at the Olympic Games." [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Korean athletes Kim Yuna and An San were included in an International Olympic Committee (IOC) video celebrating women at the Olympics.

Celebrating International Women’s Day and women’s history month, the IOC took the opportunity to reflect on the progress made towards gender equality at the Olympic Games.

The IOC video "Celebrating Women at the Olympic Games" consists of iconic scenes from the Olympics, with Korean figure skating legend Kim Yuna and triple gold medalist archer An both making an appearance.

Last year, the 2020 Tokyo Games became the most gender-balanced Games to date, with women accounting for 48 percent of all competitors. Just last month, the 2022 Beijing Olympics became the most gender-balanced Winter Games yet with women accounting for 45 percent of the athletes.

Female athletes have been breaking barriers and challenging stereotypes to get to the Olympics to where it is today.

Women have been competing at the Games since 1900, when 22 women got to compete in five sports — tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrian and golf — accounting for just 2.2 percent of all competitors.

It was only at the 1928 Amsterdam Games that the proportion of female competitors broke 10 percent. That number grew to 20 percent almost half a century later at the 1976 Montreal Games and 34 percent at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

The first time women competed in every sport in the Olympics program was at the 2012 London Games.

A decade later, the 2022 Beijing Games staged the highest-ever number of women’s events, 46, and 53 percent of the events featured female athletes, up from the 47 percent at the 2018 PyeongChang Games.

The participation of female athletes and equal representation at the Games are important because it not only promotes gender equality but also inspires and produces many more opportunities for women around the world.

Kim Yuna appears in the IOC video "Celebrating Women at the Olympic Games." [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Kim Yuna is Korea’s most celebrated figure skater, but her achievements on the big stage — winning the 2010 gold medal and 2014 silver medal — are not all she has done.

“Yuna’s Olympic performances rank right up there among the greatest ever,” Brian Orser, Kim Yuna’s Olympic coach, once told NBC.

“Even more, just look what she did for women in Korea. The thousands of little girls skating in Korea now were two or three years old in 2010.”

Korean figure skating Olympians Kim Ye-lim and You Young can testify to that, with You having said multiple times that she started figure skating after growing up watching Kim Yuna.

An San releases an arrow during the mixed team competition at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics on July 24, 2021 in Tokyo. [AP/YONHAP]

One other person Kim Yuna inspired is 21-year-old archer An, who says she always wanted to be the Kim Yuna of archery.

Despite winning a record-breaking three gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, An faced misogynistic criticism at home for the length of her hair.

After being initially praised for her achievements as an athlete, online opinion suddenly changed after predominantly male commenters gained traction, accusing An of being a feminist on the grounds being that she attended a women’s university and had short hair.

Even after that, An was able to add yet another gold medal, writing history as the first archer in Olympic history to win three gold medals at a single Games.

The next summer and winter Games, the 2024 Paris Olympics and the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, will be aiming for complete gender parity.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]