Looking Down on Earth from on Top of an Ice Wall
Looking Down on Earth from on Top of an Ice Wall
Posted February. 13, 2008 07:37,
How could I make a living as a sports climber?
Be the worlds greatest climber!
OK, Ill be the worlds greatest.
Rock-climbing Coach Lee Jeong-ok, 37, at Power Climbing Center in Daegu still vividly remembers that dialog she had in late 2003 with Shin Woon-seon, 28. At that time, Shin was an ordinary college student, visiting the center to learn about her new hobby, climbing. It had only been a few months into the program that the two had the conversation. Shin was new to sports. She had never experienced athletics nor ever joined her college climbing club.
After the conversation, Shin threw herself into the sport, transforming her chubby body into a well-toned one.
On Monday, Shin finally topped the world at the finals of the Ice Climbing World Cups second stage in Busteni, Romania, hosted by the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA). The cup is the sports most prestigious award.
She first made the cutoff coming in seventh-place at the Women`s Difficulty Qualifications where participants compete for higher scores on a variety of difficult courses. Eight climbers competed to reach the highest point, but Shin climbed the highest, beating renowned Russian opponent Kulikova Natalya by a slight margin. Shin has become the first South Korean to win a world championship in a competition hosted by the UIAA.
On the homepage (www.theuiaa.org), the UIAA described her victory as a big surprise by climbing the difficult ice wall almost to the top. When the announcement was made, Shin broke out into tears as she accepted her amazing victory.
It has only been three years since she first experienced the sport. But since the 2006-2007 season, no one has matched her in South Korea.
She first participated in the UIAA cup last year as a national representative, ranking fifth in her debut.
She now plans to participate in the third stage of the world cup slated for Feb. 21 in Saas Fee, Switzerland, aiming to win the series championship.
kimsk@donga.com
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