Kim Gwang Suk
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Kim Gwang Suk (born February 15, 1978 or 1976) was a North Korean gymnast who competed in the 1992 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 made a modest international debut with a 17th place all-around finish at the 1988 Cottbus Cup. The following year, she participated in the World Championships with the North Korean team.
While Kim 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 Tchatchev-front flip toward the high bar. The skill came to be known in the Code of Points as the Counter-Kim; today it is still ranked as a top difficulty element and is rarely attempted.
Kim's efforts were finally rewarded at the 1991 World 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 out of the medals.
While the gymnastics community praised Kim's gymnastics, 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, ESPN 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, including Béla Károlyi, voiced their doubts. 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; 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 gold medal she had won at the 91 Worlds.
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. 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 partcipate 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.
[edit] Major results
1992 Olympics: 4th UB; 11th team; 28th AA
1991 World Championships: 1st UB; 9th team; 18th AA
1990 Asian Games: 2nd UB; 6th AA
1990 Moscow World Stars: 1st UB; 8th AA
1989 World Championships: 7th team; 14th AA
