Artistic gymnast and coach on lists of top 10 players and coaches of 2023

March 18, 2024

Player proves love for her sport

An Chang Ok, an artistic gymnastics player at the April 25 Sports Team, is one of top 10 players of the DPRK in 2023.

“An is not a special player. Her physical ability is not particularly greater than others, nor was she born of sportspersons’ family with the genes of sportsperson. If she has anything special, it is that she has loved artistic gymnastics very much from her childhood," said Kim Myong Hwa, artistic gymnastics coach of the April 25 Team.

As all the artistic gymnasts did, Chang Ok had worked hard in the training ground with coaches on holidays and Sundays when others enjoyed themselves from childhood.

She also envied her peers whenever she saw them with their parents as she came out of the training ground and made her way to her house, quite exhausted.

But she knew well that she had to endeavour to do something she loved and she wanted.

Of course, her parents and coaches helped her.

"People often say that sportspersons live for gold medal, but I think gold medal is only proof. I think gold medal is proof that artistic gymnastics and I have united and that the former has accepted my love. The gold medal is proof with which a sportsperson demonstrates to the country how sincere his or her love and efforts are," said Chang Ok.

She earned two gold medals in the women's vaulting horse and uneven bars of artistic gymnastics at the 19th Asian Games held in 2023 with 14.049 and 14.266 points respectively. This year she won gold medals one after another in the FIG Artistic Gymnastics Apparatus World Cup held in Cairo, Egypt, and the FIG Artistic Gymnastics Apparatus World Cup in Germany

Master coach trains world stars

Kim Chun Phil, an artistic gymnastics coach of the Pyongyang Sports Club, was selected as one of the top 10 coaches of the DPRK in 2023 as she coached An Chang Ok and other young gymnasts to win six medals including two golds at the 19th Asian Games last year as the women’s artistic gymnastics coach of the DPRK team.

She has devoted her all to training world-class gymnasts for over 30 years since she was a girl in her 20s.

The typical world-class gymnastics stars she trained are Kim Kwang Suk, Kang Yun Mi and Hong Un Jong.

Kim Kwang Suk won a gold medal in the uneven bars of the 26th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships held in the US in 1991, causing a sensation.

Kang Yun Mi finished runner-up in the vaulting horse of the 2003 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and won the vaulting horse in the 2006 Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships and the same event of artistic gymnastics in the 2008 Olympic Games.

Hong Un Jong won the 2009 and 2013 Universiads and several other international events and was awarded gold medals at the 6th East Asian Games, 17th Asian Games and 2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

Kim Chun Phil qualified as an international referee in 2001 and was active at international events. She has been nominated as one of the top 10 coaches of the DPRK in 2023 for the fifth time since she was chosen for the first time in 2008.


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