SEOUL MATES
Victoria native takes time out of pre-Olympic schedule to learn the ins and outs of Korean culture
Victoria’s Kimberley McRae will represent Canada in luge at this February’s Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, in the same country she fell in love with as a travel ambassador last year
You might say luger Kimberley McRae has found her Seoul mate. A country full of them, actually.
The 25-year-old from Victoria, who lives and trains in Calgary, gained a serious appreciation for Korean culture during an eye-opening, 10-day trip through Seoul, PyeongChang and Muju last year. She laughed with monks. She underwent hair regeneration therapy. She stayed overnight in a temple. She spoke the language. Sort of.
“I learned hello. I tried to learn excuse me, but I don’t think it turned out because they would just laugh at me.”
McRae was on a working holiday, blogging and tweeting about her experiences in a partnership with Korea Tourism. It was a life-changing trip that started in a Calgary dojang in March 2015 and will come full circle when McRae represents Canada at the Olympics in PyeongChang in February.
“That trip was amazing. I still can’t believe I did that,” said McRae. “The biggest thing for me was how hilarious and amazing the Korean people are. They are the funniest people I have ever met. They always have a smile on their face and they’re always polite.
“I remember going onto the underground train and it was jam- packed. But everyone was super orderly. Nobody was pushing or shoving. Nobody was upset by these lines. It was just very calm.
“Maybe it was because I loved the trip, but that’s the perspective I got from it.”
After watching her two young cousins enjoy taekwondo, McRae jumped into the sport with both feet in 2015. She loved it immediately for its cardio component and quickly rose from white to green belt under the tutelage of Seoungmin Rim, a grandmaster. He was impressed with her devotion to a new challenge.
“Even with her busy schedule, she tried to reach her goals with tae- kwondo. Every time she came for training, it’s 100 per cent. I could see the determination and the commitment,” he said.
Not long after, he offered McRae free training at the dojang and it was Rim’s connection to Korea Tourism that helped facilitate the trip. In February next year, Rim and his wife will be in PyeongChang to support McRae during the Winter Olympics.
He has also passed along words of wisdom that struck a chord.
“He’s a national team coach and every coach brings in their own personality and view of competing. And I feel he has a lot that I can learn from,” said McRae.
“One of his quotes is: ‘Don’t blame others when you’re drowning.’ I love that quote. To me, that’s huge. It’s so true. What’s the first thing you’re going to do when the timer goes off, the clock runs out, somebody has blown an air horn behind you and you’re sitting at the start? You can’t blame others if you messed up. You still have to go down the track.”
She does that part well. And Wolfgang Staudinger, head coach of Canada’s luge team, said McRae’s exposure to another sport has been vital.
“This taekwondo thing is good for her focus. It’s good for her co-ordination. It’s good for anything she does to make her a better luger,” said Staudinger.
“If you’re one-sided, only in one sport, this is not the answer. Pretty much all high-performance athletes I know in the sports of luge, bobsled, skeleton and alpine skiing, they all did other sports from windsurfing to taekwondo to judo to wrestling. You name it. It just makes you a better athlete.
“You’ll have a bit more balance. The more versatile, the more athletic you are overall, that makes the best lugers, bobbers, whatever. This goes sportwide. The best athletes in the world are good athletes in just about everything.”
McRae has taken some time away from taekwondo this summer, focusing more on the Olympics and another — though vastly different — business trip to Korea.
She will go there knowing that a sense of calm and comfort awaits.
The next few months will be all about luge — the national team will train in Norway in late September and the World Cup season starts in November — but she will eventually go back to the dojang for the challenge and the tranquillity.
“It’s a calm sport,” she said. “You take that moment to calm down your heart before the competition, before you even do the simplest of movements. I definitely have taken that into training. So it has changed the way I think going into a race.
“It’s very similar to luge in that way. You have to be strong and snappy, but not tense.”