Kim Gwang-Suk - Gymnastics Career

Gymnastics Career

Kim was trained by coach Kim Chun-Phi and was appearing on the international competitive circuit as early as 1987, when she performed at the Junior Friendship Tournament (Druzhba), winning a bronze medal on the uneven bars. She continued on to other international meets at both the junior and senior levels, including the 1988 Cottbus Cup, part of the World Cup circuit, where she placed a modest 17th in the all-around, and that year's Druzhba meet, where she once again placed third on bars and won an additional bronze with the North Korean team.

The following year, 1989, Kim participated in the World Championships with the North Korean team. While she finished out of the medals on every event, her innovative uneven bars routine attracted attention. Her set would still be considered exceptionally difficult by modern standards, with intricate combinations of pirouettes and releases. Kim also performed her own original release move, a Tkatchev-front flip toward the high bar. The skill came to be known in the Code of Points as the Counter-Kim; as of the 2008 Code of Points, it was classified as a difficult 'F' element. In 1990 Kim won a silver medal on bars and finished 4th on beam at the Asian Games in Beijing.

Kim's efforts were finally rewarded at the 1991 World Championships, where she earned the uneven bars gold medal in event finals with a perfect 10.0 score. She was expected to challenge for bars gold at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, however, a step on her dismount kept her in fourth place (tied with two Romanians, Lavinia Miloşovici and Mirela Paşca), just out of the medals. Her final major competition was the 1993 East Asian Games, where she won the uneven bars title. Her score was initially given at 9.912, which kept her in second place behind China's Luo Li (who went on to win the uneven bars world title in 1994). North Korean team officials filed a protest and Kim's score was adjusted to 9.925, giving Kim a tie for the gold with Luo.