DPRK gymnast An Chang Ok won two gold medals as she won the women’s vaulting horse and uneven bars of the artistic gymnastics at the 19th Asian Games held in September this year.

At the games, she stole the show with her excellent performance. The jury members and artistic gymnastics experts highly praised her, saying that she had performed very difficult yet graceful movements and that each movement was perfect and exemplary.

An began to learn artistic gymnastics when she was a kindergartener.

At that time, coach Kim Myong Hwa of the then April 25 Sports Team visited the kindergarten. She saw the girl dancing around in the dance room and took her to her club.

She made her perform various basic movements, and noticed that the girl was more energetic and had quicker reactions and more unusual space sense than her peers.

In particular, she preferred the girl’s tenacious and competitive nature to do anything without hesitation.

From then, Chang Ok began to receive professional gymnastic training from the coach.

Though young, she was engrossed in training more than any other adults. No matter how intense the training was, she never gave up until she perfected her movements. Coaches and players of the sports club affectionately called her a “little eager beaver.” For she spent more time in the training ground than at home, she missed her parents and home.

At that time, the coach looked after her as her mother would do.

Once, she told the girl about her daughter.

Her daughter is Kim Kuk Hyang, a famous diver of the country.

She said that her daughter, too, had not often come home since she joined a sports club in her childhood, that as she also worked as a coach, it was hard for her to see her daughter, but she felt proud of her as her mother and a sportsperson when she heard that she had won an international event.

Hearing the coach, An was determined to win a gold medal in international matches.

The more she buckled down to the training, the more exact demands the coach made on her.

It happened on An’s birthday. She wanted to have a rest that day, as she had been away from home for a long time. However, the coach increased the training intensity more than usual.

During the training, Chang Ok finally fell.

At the time the coach reproached her, saying that not only she but many other people were working hard for her victory, she could never succeed if she trained only for the coach and herself, and she had to train for all of them and the honour of the country.

That day, An got up with her teeth clenched and carried out her training task of the day to the last.

When she returned to her lodging from training, she was surprised to see the coach, caretakers and fellow players waiting for her after preparing a birthday spread.

That day, she realized once again for what and whom she had to do the training.

Her coach did not train her only with mechanical repeated practice of movements. She paid attention to training her to become an independent gymnastic ace capable of performing each movement creatively, not a blind follower of her instructions.

In the course of this, An’s techniques improved day by day.

After years of strenuous efforts, she began to compete in national competitions and finally made her international debut at the 19th Asian Games.

The moment she entered the gymnasium, she was under great psychological stress.

But the next moment she saw the players of her team cheering her in sporting uniforms drawn with the national flag.

She also saw the coach looking at her with a bright smile on her face.

It took her just a few seconds, but she felt a sudden sense of calm of confidence.

“Run for all.”

She collected herself, took a quick step forward and ran along the track.

And she stepped on the springboard, put her hands on the vaulting horse and jumped into the air to perform her stunts. As she landed on the mat, she felt intuitively that she had succeeded. Because she correctly performed all the movements she had honed during the training.

She also obtained a gold medal in the uneven bars by displaying high techniques.

“Today’s victory is not only mine but that of all of us. I trained for all of us and won victory to bring honour to the country,” she said after the awards ceremony.

Ri Maek