[인터뷰] ‘Wheelchair badminton’ Yoo Soo-young “‘Would you like to live in the athletes’ village?’ “One word changed my life” : ZUM News

Sooyoung Yoo, silver medalist at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games
Stayed at the athletes’ village for 4 years and honed my skills
I suffered from loneliness, depression, and insomnia due to COVID-19.
Wearing the Taegeuk symbol and winning a silver medal at the first Paralympic Games.
“Defeat your rival Kajiwara at the 2026 Asian Para Games.
World No. 1 reveals determination to “aim for gold medal at LA Paralympic Games”

Yoo Soo-young, a member of the national wheelchair badminton team, poses with a badminton racket prior to an interview with this newspaper at the Icheon Athletes’ Village in Gyeonggi Province recently. Icheon = Reporter Choi Joo-yeon

Around fall 2019. As usual, while I was on my way home from school, I received a phone call from the Korea Sports Association for the Disabled. “Would you like to live in the athletes’ village?” It was an unexpected suggestion. Without any time to hesitate, I answered quickly, “If you call me, I will go.” And a few days later, life at the athletes’ village, which seemed like a dream, began.

Yoo Soo-young (22, Korea Employment Agency for the Disabled), the national wheelchair badminton player whom I recently met at the Icheon Athletes’ Village in Gyeonggi Province, looked back on the time and said, “I received the offer in 2018. At that time, they only asked about my doctor, and this time, they asked me if I really wanted to do it.” “I was surprised when they told me to pack my bags right away,” he said with a sheepish smile.

Yoo Soo-young, a member of the national wheelchair badminton team, is showing off her receiving skills at the Icheon Athletes’ Village in Gyeonggi Province recently. Five cuts of continuous action were layered in order. Icheon = Reporter Choi Joo-yeon

Yoo Soo-young lived in the athletes’ village for about four years until early 2023. The athletes’ village is usually a place where national athletes stay for a while to train intensively before international competitions or to complete training throughout the year, but for Sooyoung Yoo, the athletes’ village was ‘home’. He also said, “I was discovered as a rookie player and have lived on and off for about 60 to 70 days a year, but this is the first time I have lived full time for 365 days.”

At first everything was good. “It was to the point where I didn’t even want to go out of the athletes’ village.” Yoo Soo-young said, “They fed me, did the laundry, and cleaned the house, so all I had to do was exercise.” She added, “More than anything, I liked being able to exercise as much as I wanted when I wanted to.”

Paralympic badminton team members Soo-young Yoo (left) and Jae-gun Jeong are playing against China in the badminton men’s doubles WH1 and 2 grade finals at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games held at the Porte de Chapelle Arena in Paris, France on September 1 (local time). Joint photo reporting group

The honeymoon ended after half a year… a time of loneliness and insomnia.
But the honeymoon in the athletes’ village did not last long. COVID-19, which began in 2020, changed everything. As the risk of infection increased and employees stopped commuting to work, the empty athletes’ village was filled with silence. Yoo Soo-young confessed, “When I came home from school, the lights in all the rooms and hallways of all the buildings were turned off. The fact that I was alone here made me feel extremely lonely.”

The stress was more extreme than I thought. Every time I touched my hair, 3 or 4 strands fell out. There were many nights when I couldn’t sleep. I sat quietly or walked a few laps around the athletes’ village with the lights off, but the gloom that had built up in my heart did not go away easily. He recalled, “It was really difficult because of the basic loneliness, plus the impatience and anxiety of having to quickly become a member of the national team.”

Yoo Soo-young (left), who won the silver medal in badminton men’s doubles at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, is holding the hands of partner Jeong Jae-gun at the awards ceremony on September 1 (local time). Provided by Korea Sports Association for the Disabled

Two years after being selected for the national team, he won a silver medal at his first Paralympic Games.
The more difficult times were, the more Yoo Soo-young gritted her teeth. Not only did I not neglect exercise, but I also worked hard to develop my skills. At this time, the sweat shed came back with results. In the national team selection match held in early 2022, he won against Kim Jeong-jun (46, Daegu Urban Development Corporation), who was ranked No. 1 in the world, and won his first Taegeuk symbol. It is a sweet achievement achieved four years after being selected as a rookie player in 2018.

Yoo Soo-young, who was not discouraged even in front of prominent seniors, showed off her presence on the world stage by sweeping the men’s singles silver medal, doubles bronze medal, and mixed doubles bronze medal at the Hangzhou Asian Para Games held last year. The world ranking also rose to 3rd place at one point. Continuing the momentum, he won a silver medal in doubles with Jeong Jae-gun (Ulsan Jung-gu Office) at the 2024 Paris Paralympics held last August. Although he unfortunately missed out on a medal by losing to Kim Jeong-jun in the singles, it was a surprising result considering that it was his first Paralympic performance.

Yoo Soo-young, a member of the national wheelchair badminton team, poses with her racket at the Icheon Athletes’ Village in Gyeonggi Province recently. Icheon = Reporter Choi Joo-yeon

Preparation begins with the Asian Para Games in 2 years!… No. 1 in the world, Jeong-Jun

After completing the Paralympic Games, Sooyoung Yoo is now focusing on the Asian Para Games to be held in Aichi and Nagoya, Japan in two years. This is to block the ‘Japanese Grand Slam’ of rival Daiki Kajiwara, who is currently ranked number one in the world. Kajiwara, a gold medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games, has already achieved the Grand Slam by winning the World Championships and the Asian Para Games. If he wins again at the Asian Para Games held in his country, he will achieve the ‘Japanese Grand Slam’.

Yoo Soo-young expressed confidence, saying, “I think I will be able to maintain my No. 1 position in Korea until the moment I retire,” and expressed her ambition, “I will definitely catch Kajiwara at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games and advance to No. 1 in the world and a gold medal at the LA Paralympic Games.” .

Icheon Reporter Kim Jin-ju [email protected]