Paris 2024: South Korean Para rower Kim Sejeong aims to make waves

"Medal winners are written in the stars," according to South Korea's Para rowing dynamite Kim Sejeong who is excited to learn her fate at the Paris 2024 Paralympics.

Gliding across the water aboard her single scull is Kim’s happy place.  

“What drew me to rowing was not just the physical benefits... but being on the water,” says the 48-year-old South Korean ahead of her third Paralympic berth.  

“It's this charm of the water that has me hooked to rowing to this day. Being with nature, being with the water, that has the biggest appeal to me.”  

Kim hails from Gwangju – South Korea’s sixth-biggest city with a population of 1.5 million.  

A car accident 20 years ago left her paralysed from the waist down.   

“A completely different life unfolded,” Kim said.  

“Ordinary life has transformed into a radiant one.”   

More to sport than the result

Para sport has helped her find resilience, a sense of identity and push through challenges.  

“This sports community has been a really positive aspect of my life,” she said.  

After dabbling in wheelchair rugby at national level, Kim switched to focus on rowing in 2009 and hasn’t looked back.  

Her first Paralympics in Rio “felt like an inflated heart,” she said, characterising the immense sense of joy she felt competing on the international stage with the world’s best.  

“I went with excitement, played with excitement, and came back with excitement in 2016,” Kim said.  

At the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, she finished eighth in the women’s arms only single sculls.  

Five years later in Tokyo, she placed seventh in the single sculls – PR1M1x.  

Vigorous training regime

Kim has hit hot form in recent years.  

At the 2022 Asian Para Games in Hangzhou China, she bagged a silver medal in the single sculls PR1M1x event.  

"I just focused on my race, regardless of the medal," she told the Yonhap News Agency.  

"It wasn't easy because of the headwinds."  

Her training regime has been tough and vigorous in the lead-up to Paris 2024.  

Video clips of early morning heart-racing wheelchair power tests posted on her Instagram, show Kim gritting her teeth with determination to push her arms faster and faster.   

Fate will decide  

She has high expectations for her performance in Paris.

“People say the medal winners are written in the stars. So, fate will decide,” she said.  

“If there’s a medal with my name on it, it would be a great honour indeed.”  

While hungry to achieve her goals and do her best on the water, Kim says the games experience won’t be all work and no play.  

“I also want to build genuine friendships with the athletes,” she said.  

“I can't wait to meet them and play together. And I'll have great encounters. I look forward to it.”  

She is thrilled that there will be fans cheering on competitors from the stands in Paris.  

It was somewhat lonely and sad competing in the pandemic bubble in Tokyo without spectators, she explained.  

“Psychologically the experience of competing in front of an audience brings so much joy and happiness,” she said.   

“It’s best when there is an audience.”