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| Kim Su-ji in action during Women's 1m Springboard at the FINA World Championships at Nambu University in Gwangju, Saturday. Yonhap |
South Korean diver Kim Su-ji is a dream for sports psychologists. If shrinks were to teach athletes about staying in the moment and staying focused on the immediate task, they may as well use Kim as a case study.
Without checking to see how her competition was doing, Kim dove into history at the FINA World Championships, Saturday, winning the bronze medal in the women's 1m springboard to become the country's first diver to reach the podium at the biennial event.
Kim, 21, is also the first South Korean female to win a FINA world medal. Before her, only male swimmer Park Tae-hwan had won medals at this competition, with 400m freestyle gold medals in 2007 and 2011, and 200m freestyle bronze in 2007.
"I don't watch the scores during competitions because I want to just concentrate on my own performance," Kim said after earning 257.20 points from five attempts, 28.25 points behind the gold medalist, Chen Yiwen of China. "I sort of took a peek and knew I was in second place at some point, but I didn't know I'd won a medal until I was done."
Kim opened her monumental day with a strong first dive that netted her 55.20 points. She outdid herself in the second attempt with 57.20 points and jumped to second place after Chang Yani of China, one of the medal favorites, managed only 39 points in her second dive to fall from first to eighth.
Kim never dropped out of the top three the rest of the way. She was in second place heading into the final dive but allowed Sarah Bacon of the United States to get past her at the end.
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| From left, silver medalist Sarah Bacon from the U.S., gold medalist Yiwen Chen from China and bronze winner Kim Su-ji from South Korea were the winners in the Women's 1m Springboard at the FINA World Championships at Nambu University in Gwangju, Saturday. Yonhap |
Still, the color of the medal didn't matter as much to Kim as the fact that she etched herself into the record books.
"Diving isn't really popular in Korea," she said. "Hopefully, people will start following diving more closely after my medal."
The last time Kim garnered national attention came during the 2012 London Olympics, when she was the youngest South Korean athlete at 14. Kim finished last among 26 in the preliminary for the 10m platform.
She said she was "honored" to get her name out once again and for a reason other than her age.
Kim said she was so nervous that her mind went blank after her last dive, and she still chose not to look at her position.
"I wasn't hoping that others would make mistakes," she added. "I thought that if I won a medal when everyone performed well, it would mean much more to me."
The 1m springboard isn't an Olympic sport. Kim's main event, the 3m springboard, is contested at the Olympics, and she can qualify for next year's Tokyo Summer Games by advancing to the final next Thursday.
She will have to be among the top dozen in the preliminary, something she said has long been her goal.
"I know winning this medal will absolutely motivate me for the 3m springboard," Kim said. "It's a whole different animal. It's so much more difficult than the 1m event. It'd be nice to win a medal there, too, but for now, I'll try to make the final." (Yonhap)
