“Only use it…” The late Kim Young-hee, who did not know about the giant disease, gave advice to Choi Hong-man

Unlucky basketball star Kim Young-hee

I was stunned for a moment when I read an article on February 1 saying that basketball player Kim Young-hee (1963-2023) passed away at the age of 60. He earned the nickname ‘Elephant Center’ and played a part in the popularity of women’s basketball in the 1980s.

In January 2016, I visited a multi-generational rental house in Bucheon, Gyeonggi-do, where Kim Young-hee lives alone. He told me things that hadn’t been known before. We quickly became close enough to call each other “sister” and “younger brother.” Although he was in pain, he suffered more from the sense of betrayal of being ‘used and abandoned’. Even so, I remember being touched by the way he tried to live a bright and clear life. He made fun of his words and was good at imitating others. “It looks like this, but the heart is cotton candy. Ho-ho-ho” and pretending to act cute was salty. It’s sad that I mightn’t keep my promise to come back.

Park Chan-sook, head of the Women’s Basketball League (WKBL) Game Operations Headquarters, who won Korea’s first silver medal in ball games with Kim Young-hee at the 1984 LA Olympics, said, “Young-hee was a friendly friend who always called first and said, ‘Sister, thank you for helping me.’ She fell and broke her neck two months ago, and the hospital said she might no longer use her hands, so she ended her life lonely in a nursing home,” she lamented.

The kids teasing each other give out candies and become friends

Kim Young-hee, born in Eonyang, Gyeongsangnam-do, is said to have been a very small newborn. Her grandmother even prayed for her hundred days, saying, “I am worried that her granddaughter is too small. Please make her grow up normally.” From the age of five she grew taller and her body began to grow. Her father (1m65cm) and mother (1m63cm) are also of average build, and her younger brother (1m78cm) is also slightly taller than average.

Kim Young-hee, who entered the basketball team at Dongju Girls’ Middle School in Busan just because she was tall, is intertwined like fate with Park Chan-sook. In women’s basketball in the 1970s and 1980s, the rivalry in the cosmetics industry, Pacific Chemicals, and Korean cosmetics were pitted once morest each other. Pacific Chemistry, which recruited Park Chan-suk (1m90cm), who had already become a national representative when she was a freshman at Soongui Girls’ High School, was invincible. Hankook Cosmetics searched all over the country to find a tall center to compete with Park Chan-sook, and spotted Kim Yeong-hee of Dongju Women’s Middle School.

However, at that time, the coach of the unemployed volleyball team who came to Busan went to Seoul to ‘bossam’ following seeing Kim Young-hee. The coach who was teaching Kim Young-hee the basics of volleyball felt something was wrong, so she took him to the police hospital for a thorough examination. The doctor said, “You don’t know how much bigger this child will grow if left alone. But if he gets surgery, he will stop growing,” Kim said. The coach said that he did not take Kim Young-hee to the hospital following that. Even though the symptoms of giant disease have already appeared.

A few months later, Kim Yeong-hee was taken back to Dongju Girls’ Middle School, where she continued to play basketball, and went on to Sungui Girls’ High School, where she became Park Chan-sook’s junior. Kim Young-hee, who grew up to 2 m 2 cm, joined Korea Cosmetics, and in 1984, at a basketball tournament, she defeated Pacific Chemicals and led her team to the championship. She herself won 5 crowns, including the top scorer and the top rebounder.

Kim recalled that time. “That was the peak of my life. But if you look at your body and face in the mirror, this is not a woman. After that, I didn’t look in the mirror for three years. She said to herself, ‘It seems like heaven gave me this body so that I can exercise well’.”

Even in the splendid days, as the giant disease progresses, Kim Young-hee collapses in 1987 and undergoes brain tumor surgery. After retiring, he had to leave the camp and face the world. People whispered behind his back. “Oh, it’s so big. Is that a man or a woman?” However, Kim Young-hee, who had grown to 2m5cm, did not know that she was suffering from giant disease.

On October 21, 2002, JoongAng Ilbo reporter Moon Byeong-joo published a scoop on Kim’s battle with giant disease under the title, ‘Tall and sad ex-basketball representative Kim Young-hee’. KBS, which was filming a documentary regarding Kim Young-hee, recommended a detailed diagnosis to him. After confirming that he had acromegaly through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), he said he cried for three days and three nights.

“Someone who is harder than me… ” Serving facilities for the disabled

“Why didn’t the directors and coaches ever talk regarding going to the hospital? Just use it because you’re tall and eat it… . I still want to ask. why did you treat me so badly When my symptoms got worse and my weight reached 130 kg, I was told that I mightn’t even drink water because I was fat.”

After that, Kim Yeong-hui stayed at home in Jegi-dong, Seoul. Looking at the passing clouds, she said to herself, ‘Cloud, you want to be friends with me, where are you going?’ She drank hard liquor from the bottle and rolled around at night with pain in her stomach. Her mother, her only friend, passed away, and her father died of cancer two years later.

Suffering from severe depression, Kim Yeong-hee stopped eating for 7 months. He opened his heart to the sincerity of her acquaintance who took care of her crying younger brother and her mother like her own mother. She decided to let go of her hatred and resentment. Saying that she is a “giant lady,” she handed out candies and snacks to the little ones she teased, and even treated the elderly living alone with pumpkin porridge. While volunteering at her facility for the severely disabled in Paju, she regained her will to live by saying, ‘There are people who live harder than me.’

Acromegaly is a disease in which the body and organs grow abnormally due to growth hormone abnormalities. It is called acromegaly because the extremities of the body, such as the nose, mouth, and limbs, become more severely enlarged. Choi Hong-man (2m17cm), who went through wrestling and became a martial arts player, also underwent surgery to remove a pituitary tumor in 2008, which is the cause of acromegaly. In his lifetime, Kim Yeong-hee told Choi Hong-man, “Go to the hospital quickly and get a detailed diagnosis. It is said that there was a time when he advised, “Don’t be taken advantage of and abandoned like me.”

Being tall is an advantage in sports, but people who are too tall have sluggish movements or lack of basic skills. Many suffer from unknown diseases or injuries. There were ‘Goliaths’, ‘Cranes’ and ‘Elephants’ who left the stadium lonely following struggling with harsh training, curious eyes, and illnesses of unknown cause.

Chairperson Park Chan-sook said, “Young-hee was taller than me, but she wasn’t a player with the basic skills. He had a body that was not normal and he did that hard exercise, so how much pain he must have had. I hope that Younghee will not be sick and have a comfortable rest in heaven,” he prayed for the deceased.

Kim Young-hee consumed by ‘body capital’… I can’t see the poem my body writes

Sports is the most beautiful cultural genre that is made up of the human body. High jumper Woo Sang-hyeok flies up with his own body and gives the impression of jumping over the threshold of the sky. Son Heung-min’s elaborate dribbling and Heo-ung’s shot sucked into the rim are a poem written by the human body.

However, when human greed intervenes, the body is twisted and distorted. The word that reveals it is ‘body capital’. The moment the body becomes capital, it becomes a victim of profit. Kim Young-hee’s body belonged to the other who pursued profit. As an athlete, Kim Young-hee might not exist on her own and was always consumed for the benefit and glory of others.

As consumables, the body of an athlete is no different from a machine. That’s why he became a Goliath, a crane, and an elephant carrying a ball. These symbols attached to the body of athletes objectify the body and call for sadistic voyeurism to enjoy the objectified body. The human body cannot be replaced by any other sign. The body of an athlete is an end in itself, and that is why it is beautiful. Height over 2m is just a condition for the player’s life. The difference in body is as sacred as the difference in life.

We have to see the beauty in the body of an athlete. Shoot, dribble, and pass are poems written by the human body, but why haven’t we seen poetry in Kim Young-hee’s body? Kim Young-hee’s death raises such a weighty question. Tolerance and warmth to see differences as they are. The absence of that heart may have sent Kim Young-hee away early.

Jung Young-jae ([e-mail])