We met with archer Chae-young Kang, who is a national treasure and is recognized by the international archery scene.
It was a hot September day, still feeling like summer when we met with an archer who was training hard with each shot she made as she trained in the Hyundai Mobis archery center in Yong-in, Gyeonggi-do. It’s Mobis archery team member, archer Chae-young Kang who has the most international competition award record among all business teams in the world. National team member Chae-young Kang who lifts her bow 500 times a day maximum to win the gold medal at the upcoming Tokyo Olympic Games is also an ordinary 20s college student who wants to take trips around the world with her friends. Here’s her story.
Archer Chae-young Kang has been shooting 500 arrows per day since she was in 2nd grade.
When I was in my 2nd grade, my homeroom teacher asked to raise your hand if you wanted to play archery. The archery site on the side of the playground looked great, so I raised my hand high out of curiosity. Since then I haven’t stopped; I practice 9 hours a day every day and shoot about 500 arrows on a hard-working day.
Archer Chae-young Kang is like any other friend her age on her days off.
I train about 6 days per week on average. I take a day off during the weekend. On my day off, I’m like anyone else my age. I meet my friends for a chat and go have nice meals. I sometimes make my own soap and scented candles at home as well. When I’m taking a break, I just want to be like any other college girl. When I’m back in the training center, I often envy my friends and others my age. I haven’t been traveling much. I really like the sea, but I don’t have the time. When I retire, I first want to travel the world. I will go visit many great countries.
Archer Chae-young Kang says she’s confident with her physique more than anything.
The most important capacities for an archer include mentality, focus, sense, and physique. I’m mostly working on my mental health. Even if you make a mistake during the competition, you have to focus on yourself, get it together and get through it. I’m very confident about my physique, compared to other archers. My bow is more powerful than those of others as well. The Archery National Team selection process is a lot longer than that of other sports. I think it’s important to be persistent in this process; I don’t get tired compared to other archers. I also do a lot of weight training as well.
There are different ways to enjoy two types of archery; recurve and compound.
Let me tell you how to better enjoy watching archery. It’s categorized in two types of games; compound and recurve. The game we see in the Olympics is recurve. Compound involves having pulleys on both ends of the bow. Recurve leaves 70m from the target while compound leaves 50m. Recurve and compound both shoot 3 arrows and has 5 sets, but a recurve winner is the archer who wins 3 sets first while compound determines the winner by playing all 5 sets. Compound allows you to compete the absolute talent while recurve has you on your toes until the game is over as there is the unexpected factor.
When asked who she thanks the most, archer Chae-young Kang talks about her family.
I’m always so grateful to my family who’s behind me and supports me all the time. Most of all, I want to thank my mom. I’m only as good as I am because of her. Since I started sports, she’s been through a lot to support me. I really want to do better and be a good daughter.
Archer Chae-young Kang takes a drive before an important match and finds inner peace.
From October 17th to 19th, Hyundai Motor Company Jeong Mong Gu Korean Archery Championship will take place in Busan. I really want to get this title as it’s the most prestigious archery game in Korea where the internationally renowned Korean archers compete against one another. It will be a lot of help if many people take interest and support me.
In the long term, my future goals include going to the Tokyo Olympic Games next year and winning 3 titles. I really want that. My bigger dream is the Grand Slam. I want to be the top player in all major archery competitions; the Olympics, Asian Games, and the World Championship.
We hope archer Chae-young Kang wins gold in the Tokyo Olympic Games.
In August, archer Chae-young Kang made it to no. 1 in the 1st trials for 2020 National Archery Team with 2,737 points. In September, in the 2nd trial she also got first place with a total of 94 distribution points and made it to the top 20. Archer Chae-young Kang will participate in the 3rd trial round early next year before the Tokyo Olympic Games. I hope she does her best until the end and reaps good results in the National Team selection process, which is said to be even harder than getting the gold medal in the Olympics.
Photography by Eun-seon Cho
