The Journey of Kim Min-gyu, CEO of Kurashi
[Asian Games] Changed the Event, Participated for the First Time at the Age of 41, And Won a Silver Medal... The Journey of Kim Min-gyu, CEO of Kurashi
‘Uzbek Judo’ Kurashi becomes Korea’s first silver medalist… “I wanted to win gold and promote the sport.”
Kim Min-gyu, who took second place in the men"s under-90kg class at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games on the 2nd and won the first ever silver medal for Korea"s Kurasi, was born in 1982 and is 41 years old this year.
As a judo player, he also wore the Taegeuk symbol.
He teamed up with Jae-beom Kim to win the team event at the 2005 World Championships, and also won a silver medal in the individual event at the 2007 Summer Universiade.
However, he ended his career as an athlete without being able to participate in major international competitions such as the Asian Games or the Olympics.
Since then, Kurash, who started around 2018, has become a turning point in his life as an ‘athlete’.
Kurash is a traditional martial art of Uzbekistan similar to judo, and in Korea, only a small number of people, mainly former judo players, practice it.
Kim Min-gyu, who had been knocking on the door of national team selection ahead of the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games, where Kurashi became an official event at the Asian Games for the first time, but was unable to participate, entered this competition after preparing for five more years.
Even ahead of this competition, after passing the selection round, the competition was postponed for a year due to the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), and there was a risk of not being able to participate due to a suddenly created age limit for participation due to a one-year age difference. I had to hand it over.
Kim Min-gyu, who won the silver medal, said, "I almost couldn"t compete because they said there would be an age limit to only those born in 1983 or younger.
"I worked hard to solve it, and in the end, I was able to solve it and participate," he explained.
In this difficult competition, he competed against players at least 10 years younger than him in each game.
Ajmal Ishaq Zai (Afghanistan), whom he defeated in the quarterfinals on this day, was born in 1992, and Tajikistan"s Kakhnazar Nazarov, who he faced in the semifinals, was 15 years younger than Kim Min-gyu.
Kim Min-gyu, who won a close match against Nazarov, met Sadegh Azaran (Iran), born in 2002, who is 20 years older than him, in the finals that followed immediately.
Although he performed well against players his nephew"s age, he ran out of steam at the end and ended up winning his first Asian Games medal in silver.
Min-gyu Kim expressed regret, saying, "It"s an excuse, but because I"m older, I went into the finals without a break and my recovery was slow.
I went into the semifinals thinking a lot about what I was going to do, but I had no thoughts in the finals."
He went on to say, "I really wanted to win the historic first gold medal to promote Kurashi, but it"s disappointing that I couldn"t do anything in the final."
Although he pondered his regrets several times, thanks to his challenge, Kurashi participated in the finals for the first time in Asian Games history and earned a silver medal.
Korea"s Kurashi, who failed to place a prize at the Jakarta Games, which were introduced as official events, showed great progress in this competition by winning a silver medal on the 30th of last month, following Kwon Jae-deok in the men"s under-66kg class and Jeong Jun-yong winning bronze medals in the men"s over-90kg class.
Kim Min-gyu joked, "The reason for the challenge was that I didn"t have enough pension points until I retired as a judo athlete, so I wanted to gain pension points," but Kim Min-gyu said, "If you stay still, you"ll become complacent, so I wanted to challenge myself.
I wanted to show that I can do it. " He said.
The first Asian Games have just ended, and he also mentioned the word "last".
“I want to do a little more once my physical strength builds up, but this time it was very difficult.
Because of my age, it is twice as hard physically and mentally as when I exercised in the past,” he said.
“I need to invest time to get to a level where I can win a gold medal.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to invest that much time because I’m not concentrating on my career as a player.”
He added, "I think there will be a lot of people who are better at Kurashi at the next Asian Games, so I think I should go as a leader."
Kim Min-gyu, who runs a judo gym in Hanam, Gyeonggi-do, expressed his desire to teach both judo and kurashi and serve as a bridge between the two.
“I think Judo and Kurashi are like brothers,” he said, expressing his affection for both. “I hope to develop athletes and send them to the elite, so that my students can compete in the Asian Games or the Olympics.”