EWC:The other day my wife was talking about Kim Yu-na and how she’s worried the Korean media is overexposing her in advance of much success. She compared the situation it to another female Korean athlete named Kang Cho-hyun. Can you give a little background on both athletes and then explain why you think my wife is right or wrong in her comparison?

Jee-ho:Kang Cho-hyun was the silver medal-winning air rifle shooter at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She was a high school student back then, and her girl-next-door image quickly made her the darling of the nation. But she now falls in the classic “Where are they now?” category. She hasn’t done anything noteworthy since. She was more than overexposed in the media following the Olympics but since shooting isn’t a major event and Kang couldn’t find her target, she was quickly forgotten. Kang is still cited as the classic cautionary tale when it comes to the media’s coverage of Olympic medalists in the immediate aftermath of their medal-winning performances.

Kang Cho-hyun

Are we putting too much pressure on these athletes? Are they being too distracted? Will these young athletes, who don’t know any better, end up with oversized egos after all these fawning stories and glorifying documentaries?

Right after the Beijing Olympics, I saw a few stories that urged the sports media to take it easy on Park Tae-hwan, the swimming sensation, and that used Kang as an example of what can go wrong.

But the attention Kang received pales in comparison to what Kim Yu-na (it’s 김연아 so it should really be Kim Yun-a, but oh well) has been getting. Koreans had won shooting medals before but no Korean had ever done anything in figure skating before Kim came along. And the Internet media didn’t have as saturated coverage of sports in general back then as they do now.

Anyway, Kim is already the greatest figure skater Korea has produced. She is only the third skater to defend the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final title. A national survey from last year ranked Kim as the most marketable female athlete in the country. I am a closeted figure skating geek (I am about as well versed in triple toe loop and double axle as two-seam fastball and triangle offense) and I am glad to be living in an era of a world-class figure skater from Korea.

There’s no question Kim is being overexposed. Even her coach, Brian Orser, said the only thing Kim has to worry about is all the attention from the media and the Korean public. But from what I’ve seen, Kim is a remarkably poised young woman who is seemingly immune to pressure. I think she is one of those athletes with the ‘Teflon’ personality: everything just slides off and nothing sticks.

In last year’s Grand Prix Final, Kim fell during her routine, bounced back up smiling, and finished it up mistake-free. Her main rival, Mao Asada of Japan, fell, too, but she actually missed a jump later in her routine. She didn’t smile the rest of her program. Kim almost never seems bothered by falls or miscues.

Kim Yu-na

She’s got the girl-next-door image and we all know about the suggestiveness of figure skating. Kim has appeared in talk shows, fashion magazine photo spreads and commercials. If she wanted to, she could make a career out of all that and never skate once in her life. But Kim is very focused—she is training full time in Toronto—and hasn’t dabbled into off-ice stuff of late (other than some odd commercials).

Though the Winter Olympics are about a year and a half away, people already count on Kim to win a figure skating medal. But in two years’ time, we don’t know if Kim would still be skating, or skating with the same efficiency, grace and technique because the career span in figure skating is about as long as the length of the blade of the skate. I wish the media would realize that but well, I am one of them.

To conclude, your wife’s comparison is legitimate. But Kim may be the athlete best equipped to handle all the attention.

EWC: Who is the highest paid Korean athlete? Do you think they lead a lavish lifestyle?

Jee-ho: I am going to take golfers out of equation because they don’t have guaranteed contracts and earn their wage based on performances. And K-League soccer teams don’t release data on salary, though we reporters estimate some guys who’ve played in European leagues are getting around 500 million won.
The highest paid professional athlete is Samsung Lions’ Shim Jung-soo, who is guaranteed 750 million won. Yes, that’s the same Shim Jung-soo who had 88 plate appearances this season and hit three home runs in 22 games. You can all do the math.

Shim drives a Lexus. Other than that, he is not known for any extravagant lifestyle.

Kim Joo-sung

The second highest-paid guy (720 million) is Kim Joo-sung, the reigning Korean Basketball League MVP for the defending champion Dongbu Promy. He is truly one of the nicest, most unpretentious athletes I’ve ever met. Kim is a very modest guy and the first thing he did after signing the big contract a couple of seasons ago was to buy his parents a house and a nice car, so that his father could drive to watch him play.

EWC: What do you think has been the greatest Korean Series to date? (this can be either one you saw personally, or that you’ve just read about)

Jee-ho: I’ve watched every Korean Series since 1986 (either live or on tape) and have fairly good memories on most of them.

I think some people would pick the 2004 Korean Series between the Hyundai Unicorns and the Samsung Lions. Because we didn’t have the no-tie rule back then, the teams played nine games thanks to three ties before Hyundai prevailed. Bae Young-soo threw a 10-inning no hitter in Game 3 that ended in a 0-0 tie.

The 2002 Series is certainly a memorable one. Samsung beat the LG Twins in six games. In Game 6, the Lions trailed 9-6 in the bottom of the ninth. But then Lee Seung-yeop hit a three-run shot to tie and before everyone knew what was happening, Ma Hae-young hit the game-winning solo homer to win the title. It was the first time a team came back from three runs down in the ninth inning of a Korean Series game and Ma’s shot was the first Korean Series clinching homer in the league history. Just a crazy game.

My personal favorite is the 1992 Series that Lotte Giants won. They were third in the regular season but beat Samsung and the juggernaut Haitai Tigers to get to the Korean Series against the Bingrae (now Hanwha) Eagles. I’d been a Tigers fan but I liked the way the underdog Giants upset the 1991 champs.

The Giants won in five games, and three of the games were decided by one run and the other two by two runs. Lotte did it with their pitching. The Rookie of the Year Yeom Jong-seok (still with the team) and fireballer Park Dong-hee (who was killed in a car crash last year) were the stars. The Eagles had Jung Min-chul and, yes, Song Jin-woo on the mound, but both were unlucky and were ineffective at times.

Park Dong-hee

I will never forget how Song was overused and that ultimately did him in, who started in Game 1 and lost, came on in the ninth inning in Game 2 and lost, appeared in fifth inning of Game 3 and won, and pitched in relief in Game 5 with no decision.

The Giants’ lineup had a great mix of speed at the top (current Heroes’ outfielder Jeon Jun-ho, Lee Jong-woon and Choo Shin-soo’s uncle Park Jung-tae) and guys who could hit with power and average (Kim Eung-guk and Kim Min-ho). The first five guys in the lineup all hit .300 in the season.

EWC: Do you vote in the post season KBO awards? If you had to vote for MVP, Rookie of the Year and Manager of the year, who would you go with? If you had to give an award for Biggest Disappointment of 2008, who would get that “award”?

Jee-ho: Yes, I do have a vote. In a recent column, I wrote that if Doosan’s Kim Hyun-soo ends up with one MVP vote, you will know it will be from me. As I point out in that article, we all love ‘little guy that made good’ storyline. And I just don’t think voters will let a foreign player (Karim Garcia) win the KBO MVP for the second straight season. Garcia will get his share of votes, but I think this is Hyun-soo’s year.

The league’s top rookie would have to be Samsung’s Choi Hyung-woo, with 19 homers and 71 RBI to lead the team. He’s the only rookie to lead his team in both categories this year.

The Jerry Royster Experience

Jerry Royster is the hands-down choice for the Manager of the Year. He probably had more impact on his team this season than other managers in recent memory (Kim Jae-park on the Hyundai team in the late 90s and early 2000s comes to mind).

The voting is done after the playoffs and the postseason performance is actually taken into account. Silly, I know.

As for the biggest disappointment: the team would have to be the Kia Tigers. Given their talent, they should have been in the playoffs, although injuries hurt them quite a bit. The LG Twins were the worst team but they’re lucky they won 46 games. That club is a complete mess.

The most disappointing player to me is Choi Hee-seop. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He complained of headaches in spring training and missed some time. Then it was on to his back and finally his shoulder. I hammered him quite a bit last year for his supposed lack of enthusiasm. Choi has all the physical tools of a ball player and you don’t hit 15 homers in a major league season twice just by luck. Maybe he’s really been hurt and I don’t want to bash the guy too much when I haven’t had a heart-to-heart talk with him (I am not Jay Mariotti). But still, Choi has been a massive disappointment.

EWC: Are Korean athletes the subject of gossip mongers and internet chat boards in the way that Korean celebrities are? Is there an athlete competing now that’s been the subject of a scandal or two?

Jee-ho: It’s not so bad. Celebrities have it the worst but athletes are mostly left off the hook. The athletes take heat for their performances, but not so much with off-field stuff.

Lee Chun-soo and former Miss Korea Kim Ji-yoo

Some soccer players, though, have been linked with female celebrities. Most notably, Lee Chun-soo, former national team star, has been linked with a former Miss Korea winner, a member of a girl group and an actress. Take a look at his mug shot and tell me he is not a lucky guy.

Yoo Jee-ho’s writes for the JoongAng Daily. You can find other editions of Ask a Korean Sportswriter here.