This respectable man coaches the Kazakhstan curling team. He inspires his pupils by his own example, annually taking part in the competitions of the masters of this unusual sport.
There is an opinion that great heights in sports are achieved by those who begin to attend training almost from infancy. The biography of our hero will serve as a refutation of such rumors. Finding himself on the curling site absolutely by accident, almost by order, the man was able to make a brilliant career in this unusual sport and today he teaches young people, taking them out on the ice as a team member.
Childhood
Vitya was born in July 1955. His parents were from Korea. What made them move to the Soviet Union is not known. Obviously, the political sympathies of the Kim family did not coincide with the line pursued by Washington, which gained control over part of this eastern country after the end of World War II.
The boy was brought up in an atmosphere of respect for his native culture and people of other nationalities. As an adult, he will always pay attention to the fact that he has never in his life encountered hostility on the basis of ethnicity from the Kazakhs. The neighbors greatly influenced the expatriates. Children in the Kazakh SSR were avid athletes. Their grandparents also led a nomadic lifestyle and instilled in the younger generation an interest in competitions in strength and dexterity. Our hero also fell in love with sports.
Choice of profession
If Victor's peers wanted to set records, then he himself was more interested in organizing sports events. The guy did not have the data to enter the Olympic arena, but he did not want to give up his hobby and choose a profession far from a childhood hobby. The young man was educated in the field of physical education and sports and took up the development of physical culture in Kazakhstan.
After the collapse of the USSR, Astana badly needed the formation of its own staff of officials who would be involved in preparing the national team's trips to world-class competitions and ensuring the stay of athletes abroad. Responsible and proactive Viktor Kim was ideally suited for this kind of work. In 1998, as part of a Kazakh delegation, he visited the Japanese city of Nagano, where the Winter Olympic Games were held. It was here that his acquaintance with curling took place, which drastically changed his life.
New
Curling has been known and loved by the British for centuries. Its prototype was the winter fun of the inhabitants of medieval Scotland. For a long time this sport was a regional exotic. It was shown at the 1924 Olympics, but the organizers of the event were skeptical about it. He returned to the Olympic arena in 1998, when curlers competed for their first gold medals in Nagano.
The bosses gave Viktor Kim a responsible task - to delve into all the subtleties of an unusual game and prepare their athletes who can represent Kazakhstan at the international level. Our hero approached the solution of the issue boldly - he himself began to practice curling. The coach of the Russian national curling team Alexander Kirikov and specialists from Canada helped him to master the new discipline. In 2003, Kim created the Curling Association of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and the following year represented his homeland at the European Curling Championship in the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia.
Big sport
At the debut performance, Viktor Kim and his team took only 26th place in the overall standings. For the start and the desire to move forward, this was enough for the Kazakhs. Gambling athletes now did not miss a single curling competition and in 2007 they did not have enough to take bronze at the Asian Winter Games in the Chinese city of Changchun.
Unfortunately, the teams from Kazakhstan have so far failed to climb higher. Viktor Kim regularly takes part in competitions and brings young athletes with him. He does not stop improving in the art of curling, learning from Russian, Canadian and European coaches, whom he himself invites to Kazakhstan. In 2017, Victor Kim and his student Diana Torkina, born in 2001, entered the ice at the World Mixed Pairs Curling Championship, which was held in Lethbridge, Canada.
Trainer
In addition to personal participation in competitions, our hero makes a contribution to the future of curling in Kazakhstan by training young people. Victor Kim has formed his own idea of this sport. In his opinion, there is not so much space on the ice rink to demonstrate physical strength. It is not her that needs to be involved, but the intellect. An athlete often compares curling with chess: logic, the ability to imagine the course of the game in advance is the key to success.
The journalists who interview the famous curler fail to find out the secrets of his personal life. It is only known that Victor has a wife who is very unhappy with the fact that her husband spends almost all his free time on sports. Kim worries about the high cost of renting ice rinks in Kazakhstan and their small number. The coach sometimes takes funds for the needs of sports from his own pocket. Fortunately, our hero has a stable income - he is the owner of a travel company, which is an official partner of the Olympic Committee of Kazakhstan and has the exclusive right to sell tickets for this sports festival. Viktor Kim also realized himself in creativity - he made a film about the fate of Koreans living in Kazakhstan.
