sports

“I won a gold medal on my international debut. After getting off the train with the medal on my neck, I flung myself into the arms of my parents. Then the head of my team and many colleagues surrounded me and hugged me.”

This is a passage from the diary titled “My trampoline” written by Kim Phyong Gyong, a newcomer of the Hwallyok Sports Team of the Ministry of Machine-building Industry. She took the first place in the A1 girl individual at the 7th Senior and Junior Trampoline Asian Championships and the 2nd Asian Trampoline Age Group Competition last May.

Born into a farmer’s family in Tongnim County, North Phyongan Province, Phyong Gyong used to carefully watch the games of artistic and trampoline gymnasts on TV in her childhood.

A few years after she entered the primary school, a girl coach came from Pyongyang to the school to select trampoline gymnasts and Phyong Gyong was given a tryout.

“When I first met her, her eyes filled with confidence captured my fancy. I let her perform several simple movements and found out she had good flexibility and balancing ability. Moreover, I was satisfied with her class teacher's evaluation that she had good moral qualities and excellent academic performance,” said Ryu Mi Gyong, trampoline gymnastics coach of the Hwallyok Sports Team.

Phyong Gyong came to the team with Ryu to start her playing career.

The coach, who had cut a conspicuous figure during her playing career, paid the greatest attention to giving the girl proper basic training.

“In trampoline gymnastics, it is most important for a player to touch the net with two feet correctly at the same time. Only then can the player correctly jump and maintain balance and successfully perform skilful actions in succession,” said Ryu.

Days and months passed with training. One year after starting her career, Phyong Gyong won high appreciation in a national game and, the following year, she came to participate in an international game.

Though it was her international debut, she was bold enough to achieve great success from the preliminary matches. She took the lead in the preliminaries by successfully performing ten kinds of movements while fulfilling the four special demands. In the final match, too, she perfectly performed elaborate technical movements to defeat her rivals by an overwhelming margin and win a gold medal.

Phyong Gyong wrote in her diary what she felt as she won the game:

“I felt like I was dreaming. When I stood on the winner’s rostrum, many unforgettable faces came into my mind, including my parents who gave birth to me and raised me, my teachers who taught me our language, my coach who implanted a beautiful dream in my heart and encouraged me to give full play to my talent and obliging colleagues of my team. All of those people firmly joined hands with each other to form my ‘trampoline’, on which I jumped up to the sky to win a gold medal.”