On the 1st, Cheongju Gymnasium where the 5th match of the season between Cheongju KB and Bucheon Hana 1Q was held. There was silence before the national ceremony before the game. It was a time to commemorate former national team player Kim Young-hee, who passed away on the 31st of last month.

Kim Young-hee, who was called the ‘Elephant Center’ for her height of 205 cm, which is not common in Korean women’s basketball. After attending Dongju Girls’ Middle School and Soongui Girls’ High School, she worked as an athlete in Korean cosmetics. She was selected as a national representative for the 1984 LA Olympics and helped the Korean women’s basketball team win a silver medal. She was also a silver medal member of the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi and the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul. For her achievements at this time, she was awarded the Order of Physical Education in 1980 and 1984 with the White Horse and Maeng Tiger medals. 메이저놀이터

However, her large physique, which was a blessing in her basketball career, became a stumbling block in her life. She collapsed during training with her national team in November 1987. She underwent brain surgery right away, at which time she was diagnosed with acromegaly, also called ‘giant disease’, and had to leave her coat.

From then until the moment she passed away, her acromegaly weighed down Kim Young-hee’s life for 36 years. She suffered from all sorts of complications, including a brain tumor.

But what was more difficult than that was the gaze of people. Kim Young-hee appeared on the YouTube channel ‘Recent Olympics’ last year. In an interview at this time, “I was frustrated after undergoing surgery in 1987, so I wanted to go to a nearby department store and look around. When I step out the door, the men behind my back say, ‘Wow~ What a giant, that’s a man or a woman’, ‘Is that a human too’ and smiled. I came home right away,” he said.

Even going out of the house to take a light walk left only a scar in Kim Young-hee’s heart. She’s not guilty, but she’s acromegaly, so she’s always had to stay in her house just because she’s big. Of course she suffered from depression and fought it off with daily medications. Despite the struggles in her life, she also volunteered for children with disabilities. Kim Young-hee said that she thought, “She sees the children and the difficulties I go through are nothing.”

She has lived through various complications and she has reached out to help in many places in the basketball world for Kim Young-hee, but she suffered an accident in which her neck was broken in October of last year. ended her life at the age of

Her warm-hearted Kim Yeong-hee, who cared for her disabled people even while suffering from her deteriorating health due to her acromegaly, which had plagued her all her life. Her mind, which was bigger than her physique, left a calm impression in the history of Korean women’s basketball.

May her condolences rest in peace.