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KIM GWANG SUK
Kim Gwang Suk (born February 15, c. 1978) was a North Korean gymnast who competed in the 1992
Summer Olympics. She is known for both her exemplary uneven bars work and for her involvement in one of the most
prominent age falsification scandals in gymnastics in recent years.
Kim competed in several major international senior meets between 1989 and 1993, including the 1989 and 1991 World
Championships, the 1990 Asian Games and the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. She was the 1991 World Champion on the uneven bars,
winning the event with a perfect 10.0 score and a routine that included an original release move, the "Counter-Kim."
Due to her small stature and the fact that the North Korean Gymnastics Federation listed her given age as 15 for three
consecutive years, questions arose about Kim's age and eligibility for senior competition. While her real age was never
ascertained, it was discovered that the Federation had submitted inconsistent birth year information for her at least three
times at three separate international competitions. As a result of the falsification, the North Korean women's gymnastics
team was banned from the 1993 World Championships.
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 at 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 Stalder work and several releases and transitions. 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 2004 Code of Points, it was classified as a difficult "E" element. In 1990,
Kim won a silver medal on bars at the Asian Games in Beijing.
Kim's efforts were finally rewarded at the 1991 World Artistic Gymnastics 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, just out of the medals. Her final major
competition was the 1993 East Asian Games, where she won the uneven bars title.
While the gymnastics community praised Kim's performances, they also questioned her age. Kim was tiny even by gymnastics
standards, and many people did not believe she was actually eligible for senior competition. At the 1991 Worlds, television
commentators made several remarks about Kim's supposed age. When Kim appeared at the Olympics the following year with
missing front teeth, standing 4'4" and claiming to be seventeen, the skepticism grew. Several officials and coaches publicly
voiced their doubts. Béla Károlyi, during the team portion of the competition, commented "Her milk teeth are
falling out, which is a good indication she's not even 11." Even NBC mentioned the controversy in their television
broadcasts to American audiences.
Kim's coaches claimed that she had lost her teeth in a training mishap several years before the Olympics. This story was
corroborated by photographs from past events, witnesses and video footage of Kim without teeth at the 1991 Worlds. However,
there was no way to explain away the numerous inconsistencies with Kim's age.
It was eventually revealed that North Korean officials had falsified Kim's birth year at least three times, supplying
different information at different competitions. They had been sloppy with their forgeries, too; Kim had been "fifteen"
at both the 1989 and 1991 World Championships, and at the 1992 Olympics her age had mysteriously jumped to seventeen.
The FIG punished the North Korean gymnastics federation by barring their women's team from the 1993 World Championships.
Kim, however, was permitted to keep the medals she had won in international events, including her 1991 World Championships
gold. The same year, her country's government honored her by including her in a series of postage stamps commemorating
North Korean world champion athletes.
Kim's real age has never been conclusively determined, and is left blank in her FIG profile. Some people believe she
was born in 1976; the more accepted consensus is that her birth year was actually 1978 or even 1979. The rationale behind
this estimate is that the Federation was still supplying false birthdates for Kim in 1991 and 1992. If she had been born in
1976 or 1977, this would not have been necessary; to be age-eligible to participate in the 1991 Worlds and 1992 Olympics,
gymnasts had to be born on or before December 31, 1977.
Little is known about Kim apart from her competitive history and her current whereabouts are unknown.
For more information, visit her
profile page on the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique website.
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