It’s a small story in the grand scheme of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics, but one that’s worth your time.
On Tuesday night stateside, figure skating fans were treated to special sight, as Ryom Tae Ok, 18, and Kim Ju Sik, 25, took the ice under the acronym PRK and the North Korean flag — the only North Korean athletes to qualify for the Olympics on athletic merit.
The pair skated beautifully in the short program to a Jeff Beck instrumental cover of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life,” earning a personal best score of 69.40 and temporarily holding second place. It would be enough for the pair to qualify for the following day’s free skate and become a storyline at these games.
That’s not all there is to the story, but like everything related to North Korea, it’s also a story that requires a preface. The People’s Republic of Korea is a violent authoritarian state with a record of human rights violations against its own citizens and nuclear threats. Most North Koreans who make it onto the wider world’s radar, whether cheerleaders or figure skaters, come from positions of relative comfort with respect to that government.
As Seong Moon-jeong, a researcher who studies inter-Korean sports told NPR, “It’s almost impossible for people outside the country to know how they grew up as athletes or about how the North Korean infrastructure is supporting the athletes.”
This preface doesn’t lessen their athletic performance or diminish the meaningfulness of their appearance in Pyeongchang. Complex geopolitical affiliation is not even unprecedented at the Olympics. Perhaps it’s only to say this isn’t a story about athletes defying the odds and protesting a regime. Here’s what it is about: It’s a story about a promising pairs duo, introducing themselves to the world on the Olympic stage.
As best we know, Ryom and Kim started competing in pairs figure skating in 2015. The sport itself received a boost in the early 2010s when Kim Jong-un came to power, being as it is that the leader’s favorite sports get a lot of attention and support. In 2016, Ryom and Kim first appeared on the international pairs figure skating circuit, winning gold at the 2016 Asian Figure Skating Trophy and bronze at the 2016 Cup of Tyrol in Austria.
In February 2017, the pair was approached by Bruno Marcotte, a Canadian World Junior medalist, who complimented their technique. In March, he became their coach and Ryom and Kim move to Canada for eight weeks to train, chaperoned all the while by a man from the North Korean skating federation whose relationship to the two Marcotte described as familial.
Ryom and Kim went out to compete in the 2017 World Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki. Later, in September at the Lebelhorn Trophy in Germany, they officially qualified for the Winter Olympics. (Ultimately, the North Korean government missed the deadline to register Ryom and Kim for Pyeongchang, but the IOC made an exception in January as part of the peace talks that resulted in the North Korean delegation. Ryom and Kim, however, remain the only athletes to have qualified outright on athletic ability.)
After their short program skate on Tuesday, Ryom and Kim spoke very limitedly to the press. According to NPR’s Elise Hu, the skaters said they were honored to compete for their country. Asked about the crowd’s reaction, they said the cheers meant “It’s clear we are one people.”
When Ryom and Kim qualified for the Olympics, Jun Michael Park, a South Korean photojournalist, told NPR, “They were smiling and hugging and celebrating… It was really kind of touching to see those kinds of human interactions.”
Figure skating can be a deeply humanizing sport. Skaters earn points for conveying emotions through their artistry and choreography. Ryom and Kim, in particular, skate with visible emotion, passion and joy.
“They’re a crowd favorite, very fast. They’re so expressive that the audience just connects very well with them,” Marcotte told the Global News. “They have a lot of charisma on the ice, that’s for sure.”
According to their coach, Ryom and Kim have set their sights on becoming pioneers in North Korean pairs figure skating. While the podium at Pyeongchang is largely out of the question, the pair has the opportunity to raise their world ranking and profile. They’re aiming for a medal at the 2020 World Championships and an invite to the invitation-only Grand Prix event.
“I think for them [the goal is] for sure to make their country proud,” Marcotte said. “And also to show the world that no matter where you’re from, you can be successful.”
The ease with which Ryom and Kim fit right in Olympic competition is proof of that.
Next: James and Cipres are the pairs Cinderella story
Ryom and Kim will skate Wednesday evening 8 p.m. ET in the pairs free skate, hoping to beat their total score personal best of 184.98 and assert themselves as names to watch in pairs figure skating.