Chapter 175 – Going to the Olympics.
For now, we decided to discuss the rest after my Asian qualifiers for the Olympics to give Youngrae and Donggu time to do some research on wet wipes.
As I was busy preparing for the preliminaries, this year’s kick-off ceremony was decided to be simple for each company.
Had it not been for the preliminaries, I would have planned to have a kick-off ceremony on a large scale with ‘Kim Hee-kyung Food’, ‘Hee-kyung Distribution’, and ‘Future Health’, but I promised next year that I would have a big party when I went to the Olympics and won a gold medal.
On Saturday morning, two days before the qualifiers, I set off for Thailand with the director and Korean athletes participating in the Olympic Asian qualifiers.
Upon arrival in Thailand, buses and accommodations were prepared for Korean players.
However, thinking of Kyung-mi and Soo-yeong who would come later, I asked the team for their understanding and set up a separate hotel not far away.
In any case, the athletes’ lodgings were set up by several countries, so we just moved to a better hotel.
The team leader made a dissatisfied face when I acted independently, but he didn’t punish me because of what he heard from above.
I took two hotel suites and gave one room to the director so that he could rest comfortably while he was out.
The manager, who never thought that I would lose, entered the suite with a comfortable mind, and I sat quietly at the back of the team meeting to avoid standing out.
Weigh-ins were busy from Monday morning, and the first match finally began.
The first opponent was an leadern player.
I had dark skin and a slightly thin, dwarf physique, but the opponent looked shrunken when he saw me, who was tall and built up muscles.
However, unlike his shrunken appearance, he attacked in a very combative manner during the match.
However, boxing was not so active in the country, so it seemed that his skills were inferior to that of the son of a member of the National Assembly during the National Sports Festival.
Not a Korean player, I spent the first round in a search match, and when the player’s skills were identified, the ball rang and entered at the same time as the second round, and showered punches.
My fists were so fast and accurate that the leadern player, who was only getting hit, eventually ended in a blush when the coaches announced that they would give up the game.
The second opponent was a Chinese player.
The Chinese players performed worse than the leadern players.
It was to the point where I doubted how I had won the first game and climbed up.
I couldn’t do anything in the opponent’s camp and ended the fight with a KO early in the first round.
When the KO came out in the second game, a strange phenomenon suddenly occurred where reporters flocked to cover me.
In the amateur game, more than professional talent appeared, and Thailand was traditionally a country where martial arts such as boxing and Muay Thai were very popular.
As a result, I started covering an outstanding newcomer who appeared like a comet.
I did an interview for the first time in my life, and in Korea, the results of my match were reported in the newspaper the next day.
And if it goes up to the finals, it has been decided that it will be relayed in broadcasting.
I felt bewildered, but also proud at the same time.
The director was busy praising me in front of people all the time and boasting that he had raised me.
The quarterfinals and semifinals were also won without difficulty by KO.
But in Korea, there was an uproar.
At that time, boxing was a very popular sport in Korea.
Of course, since it was a game that took place ahead of the Olympics, the public’s interest was high.
However, when I appeared and won by KO from the first match in the international game, the people took notice of me, and sports news started to introduce the video of my KO match and spread the news every day.
It was like a sports hero who made Korea shine like Park Chan-ho or Pak Se-ri in my memory.
The last final was a Filipino player.
Like Thailand, the Philippines has traditionally been a boxing powerhouse.
With her slender and slender body and the distinctive dark skin of Filipinos, her looks were impressive enough to make her a winner right away.
However, it was clear that the other person was also nervous.
Although he was 188 cm tall for a middleweight, he didn’t have big muscles like a bodybuilder, but his bright chocolate abs and horse muscles were densely located all over his body, overwhelming his opponents.
People, like animals, are naturally nervous when they are taller than themselves.
And the Filipino player seemed to be withdrawn as if he had heard from Korea that he had won all the matches by KO.
I was calmly staring into the eyes of the Filipino opponent.
The coach said something eagerly, and the Filipino player was shaking his head eagerly while looking at me.
However, looking at the shaking eyes of the Filipino player facing me, I could foresee victory.
It was as if I had already won the battle of momentum.
The game started, but the Filipino player kept turning to the outside and did not attack.
Obviously, when I saw the well-built muscles and movements, I think the infighter was right, but I didn’t stick directly to the coach’s strategy.
It seemed that he was aiming for a counter-punch, probably judging that he had no chance of winning by directly confronting him.
I stood in the middle of the ring, raised my guard, and circled around the Filipino to block the incoming jab.
In the first round, more than two minutes had already passed.
I was still just guarding and glaring at the Filipino player, twisting my body to defend.
But I was putting momentum in my eyes and putting pressure with my body.
It looked like I was turning my body toward the opponent, but in fact I was driving the opponent into one place by turning little by little.
If I am properly pressed by my momentum, the opponent will go to the corner without knowing when I moved.
However, despite the momentum throughout the first round, the opponent flinched and did not drive well.
When I returned to the corner after the first round, the director said that I was doing well, as if he had already understood my intentions, and gave me water to rinse my mouth.
As I was drinking water and looking at my opponent, I saw that the opponent was sweating profusely and struggling.
It’s only been one round now, and no matter how much the opponent was running out of boxing, there was no way the boxer was sweating like that.
I could see that my momentum pressure was working.
If the opponent was aiming for a counter punch, I was going to kill him by pressing it like this.
Round 2 started and I was still in the middle of the ring with my guard up and pressing.
I could see that the opponent was sweating more than before, probably because his stamina was already declining.
I now start to jab, moving my body a little faster.
As I pushed in with a jab, the Filipino player, who was already under pressure, could feel his breathing getting rough as he sweated like rain.
Then, as he approached the Filipino player, who was quickly withdrawing and breathing, the Filipino player tightened his guard even more and tried to evade his body.
However, when the Filipino player tried to move to the side and his body got caught in the corner, he showed a very embarrassed look.
The Filipino rider, who had already lost his momentum, had not been aware of it until now, even though I ended up driving it into a corner.
No matter how much it is on the world stage, it was a complete defeat in the fight for momentum as a young athlete who is now participating in the Olympics.
It was only natural that he couldn’t properly grasp how he was moving right now, as he was only looking at my eyes under the pressure of the momentum.
The embarrassed Filipino player took his stance and started punching him, as if he had decided to follow his own style.
But this is exactly what I wanted.
I watched the opponent’s fist until the end and blocked or dodged all the flying fists.
A tremendous battle had passed, but the hall was silent as if dead.
It just kept screaming in that corner.
It’s probably telling you to get out of the corner quickly.
After a while, cheers and applause erupted from the audience.
People reacted enthusiastically to my fantastic performance.
I started punching him as if to reciprocate.
At first, the Filipino player responded by throwing punches at my fist, which became faster and heavier, but in the end, the Filipino player, who was pushed by my speed, guarded and just got hit.
The Filipino player’s guard was finally released by my fists pouring countless times over the guard, and I hit the face indiscriminately.
The referee ran over and hugged me and declared a stoppage in the game.
The Filipino player, who was leaning on the corner, sat down on the ring as if it were flowing down.
I approached the Filipino player and checked his condition.
Seconds from the Philippines camp had already come up and were cooling the players with ice.
When I heard the Filipino’s breathing steady, I tried to return to my corner.
At that time, everyone in the hall was applauding tremendously towards me.
I was startled, took a look around, and was thrilled to say hello in all directions.
Then he raised his hands and let out a loud cry of joy.
The manager came up and tapped me on the shoulder, and I finally came to my senses and left the ring.
I went down to the ring, and the Korean team leader put a smile on his face, shook my hand saying that he was good to me and that he did a good job, and then hugged me.
I thought this man was crazy, but when I looked around, I quickly knew why.
It was because of the reporters.
The TV station was pushing the camera, so the leader took an excessive action.
I was also sensible, so I blew lip service to say thank you that I was able to win because the captain cared about me.
The director was very happy with my reaction, and he didn’t think of leaving in front of the camera.
For the first time in my life, I was able to do an interview with an announcer in front of a TV camera.
Of course, I gave a courteous greeting to the director, general manager, and boxing association executives, and just like Hong Soo-hwan did in the past, I said, ‘Mom, I won the championship.’
Even though the interview with the broadcasting station was over, I had to receive a barrage of questions and flashes from reporters from around the world.
It was because the appearance of a really great amateur newcomer that anyone can see that the previous match was KO.
I barely escaped the crowd of reporters and went to the captain.
Since I came to Thailand, I said I would get out of here and rest for a few days before going.
Then, suddenly, the leader made a troubled face and carefully asked if he could just go in with him.
He said something strange, saying that since the squad came all at once, we had to go in all at once, and we had to have a disbanding ceremony.
Then, what about the players who have already lost the first game and returned to Korea?
As I looked at the leader, thinking that it was absurd, I rolled his eyeballs this way and that, and it seemed that he was thinking about something else.
It looked like something had been done to the arrival airport.
It was an opportunity to firmly establish one’s prestige, and it was only natural that he did not want to miss it.
I sighed and then asked when I would be entering the country.
The general manager told us that there was the last game on Sunday and that after the awards ceremony, we would return on Monday morning.
Fortunately, all the games were over on Saturday, so I had a day to spare tomorrow.
Then I asked if I could have some free time until tomorrow, and the captain smiled and said yes.
When I returned to the hotel with the director, Kyung-mi and Soo-yeong were in the lobby on the first floor.
When the director saw the two women, he was surprised and welcomed them, saying, “How did he get here?”
Since both women are close friends with the director, he treated them without hesitation, and said that they had come to Thailand for filming and came over here.
The director looked at the two women and me and tried to avoid the seat.
However, when we came to Thailand this time, only the two of us came with the director, so if we were to play together now, the director would have to stay alone in a place where we couldn’t speak the language until tomorrow.
I told Kyung-mi and Soo-young noona that we should spend time together with the director, and the two women willingly agreed and moved with the director’s arms folded.
As the pretty girls on both sides crossed their arms, the director was so happy that a smile never left his face.
We sat in the hotel coffee shop and talked about this and that.
The two women said they were able to shoot until morning and come right over because the filming location was not far away.
So, I was able to watch my last game, and they praised me so much that it was really great.
In particular, Sooyoung noona, who knows boxing so well, looked at me with a look of emotion and envy in her eyes and complimented me.
Kyungmi also saw a boxing match for the first time, and when Suyeong noona explained to her, she congratulated me on winning the championship, saying that she knew what a great match I had.
And the two people who first saw reporters and reporters coming out of the broadcasting station were amazed and said that I would become a more star than they did.
Even the director was talking to the story of the two women, agreeing and responding, adding seasoning, but I was the topic of conversation all over.
I told him to stop talking about me and decide what to do now, and he said that there was still time until dinner, so we decided to get a Thai massage while we were in Thailand.
Everyone cheered, and the director especially liked it.
After getting a massage recommended by the hotel counter, everyone exclaimed that it was so cool and good.
In particular, the director was clearly disappointed, so he promised to come again tomorrow.
We went into a restaurant that looked delicious nearby, had a meal, and looked around.
It was getting dark, and because of the hot weather, we returned to the hotel and went into the lounge bar for a simple cocktail.
Kyung-mi ordered a non-alcoholic cocktail because she was still young, Soo-yeong and I ordered a moderate cocktail, and the director ordered whiskey.
Gyung-mi grumbled, saying that she knew she knew it too, but she came this far and said that she wouldn’t let her drink, but when the director told her to grow up a little later, she just went in.
We had a really exciting and fun conversation, and the director and Suyeong noona got drunk and returned to the room.
There was no happiness in spending time with pleasant people in an unfamiliar foreign country.
Sooner or later, I came to the idea that I should go on a trip with all of my girls, including her mother.