KAIST students were surprised to find out that the figure skater who won a gold medal in the 93rd National Winter Sports Festival is a sophomore at KAIST. The KAIST Herald met Hyunseo Park, the gold medalist, to hear more about her figure-skating life and how she managed to handle both figure-skating and her studies.

▲ Hyunseo Park

Could you explain to the readers about the competition you participated in?

Figure skaters are divided into eight levels depending on their skating abilities, with the eighth level being the professional class. In the competition, four groups of two levels each from lowest to highest are formed, which are group A to D. Professionals mostly belong to group A, and amateurs participate in group D. As for groups B and C, skaters who belong to neither groups A nor D compete in those groups; thus in the college division, only groups A and D remain. As for me, I participated in group D, the amateur class, along with two other skaters. Since I was the only female figure skater in Daejeon to compete in the college division, no preliminary rounds were held. However, the other two had to go through regional preliminaries in Busan and Seoul. That is why in group D, only three figure skaters competed in the main round for the gold medal.

When did you start figure skating, and how do you feel about winning the gold medal?

I have skated since I was ten years old., I skated continuously until I became a middle school student, but then I took a break to study. When I entered high school, I started figure skating again, and it has now been four years since I resumed. Even if I exclude the years during which I took a break from figure skating, not many figure skaters near my age have skated as long as me. Back in elementary school I participated in a figure skating competition once, and from what I remember, I finished at around 12th place out of about 20 competitors. Except for those who were the top few skaters back then, no one continues to compete now. When I received the gold medal, I felt that my persistence finally paid off.

How did you manage your time for both figure skating and studying?

Competition for grades did exist in the high school that I attended, but it was not so much as to require all of my time. Luckily, during the two years in high school, my homeroom teachers let me go early, so I think that helped me out a lot. I would figure skate once or twice a week during the semester and much more frequently during vacations. These were just to maintain my figure skating skills rather than improve them. Even now as a university student I do seldom skate during the semester, but what differs is that vacations are now almost entirely devoted to figure skating. I think commuting to school is one of the reasons that allowed me to manage time wisely. Commuting to KAIST is possible since I live in Daedeok-gu, and staying at home except when there are occasional meet-ups enables better time management, although it has drawbacks of its own.

Between figure skating and receiving a higher education, how did you decide which path you would pursue?

People often say that what you enjoy doing should be your future job. However, from what I see, if one indeed got a job in what he loves, it no longer attracts his interest and becomes a form of stress on its own. Frankly speaking I love sports, especially figure skating, better than studying, so I thought that it would be best that I left figure skating as a hobby. Instead, I chose to pursue a career in science, because studying science is what I like most next to figure skating, which I wish to continue for as long as my body allows it.

What is your future ambition as a KAIST student?

Since I was little, I hoped to become a medical scientist rather than a doctor. As a sophomore, I am currently majoring in the Department of Chemistry, and if I can attain a Medical Degree and Ph.D. at the same time through a dual course, then I would be able to integrate medical knowledge, science and sports to do research that helps people in diverse ways.

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