“I went to the national team selection match just a year after giving birth, but I failed. It was a bit hard then. I started again because I wanted to be a player, but because of that, I can’t spend that much time with my child and I don’t think I can play the role of a mother properly. I wondered if I was doing something wrong or if I was just holding on because of my greed.”
Kim Ja-in, 35, who is called the empress of sports climbing (女帝), is a working mom. Kim sought to return to the national team last year, but was eliminated. Since her physical condition was not the same as before after childbirth, it could be said that she is now older. However, she rejected the excuse that her mother’s body was not the same as before because she gave birth. As an athlete who has to use her body, she couldn’t admit that childbirth was like an obstacle.
“A lot of people say that you shouldn’t exercise more than half a year after giving birth and that you should be careful, but I actually started exercising little by little after a month and a half after giving birth. People around me were worried, but things like wrist pain got better with exercising. Many people ask if I’m physically okay, but it wasn’t a problem that I wasn’t physically fit. In fact, what’s hard about me is that climbing styles change and trends change, which is a different direction from what I’ve been doing for 20 years.” 토토사이트
Kim is also famous for the episode in which he did chin-ups while holding his daughter in a baby belt. The child fell asleep calmly in the arms of the mother who was going up and down on the chin-hanging rod. It might stop at a funny anecdote, but this story showed how desperate he was to return as a player. “I want to exercise, but I have to see the baby, too. I was born in the year of the baby and did chin-ups. I think I did it until I turned around. My child was young and I had so little time to exercise.”
After losing the national team selection match, he tried again, but a crisis came. He was injured ahead of this year’s national sports climbing competition. a ridiculous injury that came unexpectedly. It was also a fatal finger injury for a climber. In order to participate in the Paris Olympics next year, the selection of the national team was the most important time.
“I actually had a mental breakdown. The selection of this year’s national team was too important to challenge for next year’s Olympics. I was injured before that important moment. In 2019, I also suffered a finger injury while participating in the first competition to qualify for the Olympics. It was so hard, but the same situation happened again. In an unexpected situation, too.”
He said he also thought that it meant not to do this. Such a situation was more upsetting than sad, and the anger came later. So I was tempted to say, “Let’s see if you win or if I win.” “I didn’t put up with the pain, but the rest of the time was short, but I tried my best to treat and prepare for it, so I didn’t fully recover, but I was able to finish it well because my fingers held up well,” he recalled.
Having returned to the national team with difficulty, he overwhelmingly topped the ninth round of the 2023 International Federation of Sports Climbing (IFSC) World Cup in Chamonix, France, in July this year. In the lead event, he is the biggest gold medalist ever. Including one gold medal in bouldering, he has won 31 World Cups alone.