Snowboard national team member Kim Sang-gyeom, 37, of High1, who delivered Korea's "400th Olympic medal" at the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics, wiped away tears even off the podium.
On the 9th, a post appeared on social media in which Kim Sang-gyeom's wife wrote down her feelings after finishing a video call with her husband.
On Feb. 8 (Korean time) at the Livigno Snow Park in Italy, Kim Sang-gyeom took the silver medal in the men's parallel giant slalom final, finishing 0.19 seconds behind Austria's Benjamin Karl. The silver was the Korean delegation's first medal of the Games and marked Korea's 400th Olympic medal across both Summer and Winter Games. As Kim, who had not produced notable results on previous Olympic stages, won a precious medal on his fourth attempt, the reaction locally was that the result was unexpected.
His wife's post fully conveyed the weight of that time. Kim Sang-gyeom's wife said, "At the Pyeongchang Olympics, when we decided to get married, I shared tears of regret over a video call with my husband after he was eliminated in the round of 16," and added, "I felt, oh, we are partners who will share sorrow for life."
She continued, "At the Beijing Olympics, it hurt so much to see him sad because he couldn't put the medal we had longed for around (my) neck," and said, "What moved me most was when he said he wanted to win a medal and give his wife a good memory."
She added, "In the video call we had after today's competition, we faced each other with tears of joy," and said, "This is a fourth Olympics he never could have reached alone. The hearts of the many people who cherished and believed in him finally came together to bring a worthy reward."
Meanwhile, Kim Sang-gyeom also choked up in an interview after securing the medal. He shed tears as he noted that, amid the reality of an unpopular sport, he had to do manual day labor to make a living and joined a stable unemployment team relatively late.