Kim Hong-jun, became the youngest national team member of Para ice hockey

[Guest @sportstoto365]

"You're in."

"Wow!" came over the phone in late March, and a cheer erupted in the Gangneung Hockey Center locker room: Kim Hong-jun (15, Jamsinjoong, Seoul Eagles), the protégé of Pyeongchang Paralympic legend Han Min-soo, had been surprisingly selected as the youngest member of the Korean Para ice hockey team. In Jamsinjung, Songpa-gu, Seoul, a placard read, "Congratulations to third-grader Kim Hong-jun for being selected as the youngest member of the Para ice hockey national team.

Han won the first bronze medal in Para ice hockey history at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Paralympics and is a legend in Para sports. Since the Pyeongchang Paralympics, he has challenged bodybuilders and fashion models to demonstrate the power of his 'robotic legs' and has worked tirelessly to expand the popularity of Para ice hockey. Shortly after the quarterfinals of the 2022 Beijing Paralympic Games, he made it his mission to discover promising players for the future of Korea's aging para ice hockey program, and has since traveled the country as a rookie player coach to discover and train elementary and middle school dreamers.

Kim Hong-joon, the youngest national team member born in 2009, is Han's protégé and the first fruit of the rookie camp. He started playing baseball at the age of six and pursued his dream of becoming an athlete, but two years ago, he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. Para ice hockey became his new path. He met a coach in 2022 after being introduced to the 'Mokham Mine Hero' Sergeant Ha Jae-heon (SH Corporation), and since then, pucks and sleds have been everything to him. He scored his first goal for Seoul against his older brothers at last year's Play Winter Games, and earlier this year, 스포츠토토 he won the Rookie of the Year honor with a goal and two assists at the National Para Games. In March of this year, he became the youngest player to earn the Taegeuk Mark after only one and a half years in para ice hockey when he was called up to the national team's third team to fill in for injured players.

After his first call-up at the end of March, he is now in his fourth week of national team training. "I'm very honored and happy to have been selected," Kim said, but he also admitted that he feels the weight of the national team and the Taeguk Mark. "Training for the national team and rookies are very different. I'm always thinking about the weight of the flag. I have to be much better than I am now because I am representing the country with the flag," he emphasized. "I will work harder, listen to the advice of my seniors, and do my best to grow into a great athlete," she said.

Han, who was moved to tears by her accomplishment, said, "Congratulations to her for becoming the youngest rookie to make the national team. She has always been passionate about hockey and has trained hard," said Han. "I hope you will not lose this passion in the national team, always be careful of injuries and become a pillar of Korean Para Ice Hockey," he said.

After leading Korea to a bronze medal miracle at the Pyeongchang Paralympic Games, the sport has been in a downward spiral since the Games, when it received widespread attention and support. The sport has been plagued by an aging roster, the retirement of an ace, a rash of injuries, the absence of an unemployed team to compete with the Gangwon Province, and a lack of rinks. The 2024 World Championship (A-POOL) in Calgary, Canada, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 14, will be all about the top-four shootout against the United States, Canada, Czech Republic, Italy, Slovakia, China, and Japan. That's why one coach who is "all in" on developing new players for the future of para-ice hockey is eager to see Kim take the sport by storm. "I hope he can fulfill his dream of competing in the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Paralympics," he said, adding that "sweat never betrays you."