Thirty three years ago today at 8 a.m., the Los Angeles sky was yellow. Hyung-joo Ha starved for days to pass the 95 kilogram limit for the half heavy class. He even had to spit out water at times. He had lost six kilograms and was able to pass the test.
The first match was at 2 p.m. Ha had no energy. Suddenly, Korean immigrants in L.A. visited the gymnasium inside the campus of University of Southern California (USC) with homemade food. It was a pretty colored, Korean-style porridge with a rice-base. The porridge came in a metal container. When the lid opened, the smell of cooked rice swirled around the locker room. It was an abalone rice porridge made at home.
The Korean athletes ran into the locker room and enjoyed the porridge in nostalgia. Each judoka had to compete six times to win a gold medal.
“The weight test was always a pain,” Ha recalled. “When you suddenly lose a lot of weight, it’s impossible to eat regular food. I’m not sure how our fan in L.A. knew that, but porridge is a rare food you can eat when you’re recovering from losing all that weight. It really helped us to recover properly. We were saying amongst ourselves that the porridge spurred us to win.”
Ha, now 55, visited the Korea Daily office on Aug. 10. He is the Olympic gold medalist from the Summer Games in 1984 in L.A. He is 184 centimeters tall. His feet are 310 centimeters long. Ha is a big man, still an energetic figure to this day. His eyes were always fixated during the interview. The man never slurred his speech.
“Aug. 10 is when I won that gold medal,” Ha said. “It’s also my birthday. The day I won the gold medal was like my second date of birth. It was the turning point of my life.”
Ha was never considered the favorite to win gold. He even got a difficult draw. Ha was able to beat Japanese judo legend Mihara in the quarterfinals, but also hurt his shoulder during the gruesome battle. In the semifinals, Ha defeated Gunther Neureuther of Germany with only 41 seconds remaining. As he went into the gold medal fight, his opponent, he still remembers Douglas Vieira staring at him.
Every Korean person around the world was in front of a television set to watch the two battle. Ha edged out Vieira and won the gold medal. Handsome face on a big body, along with his Gyeongsang dialect. Korea fell in love with Ha.
Ha visited L.A. recently for taekwondo. He is the chair of South Korea’s Dong-A University taekwondo team. Ha brought a team of 19 athletes to perform various taekwondo exhibition across the United States. They performed in Minneapolis and then in Portland after arriving in the U.S. on July 24. Ha’s team will perform in Irvine on Aug. 13 for the last time. Ha is also currently a sports psychology professor at Dong-A University in Busan, South Korea.
After finishing the interview, Ha took a photo on the rooftop of the L.A. Korea Daily. He was staring at the building where he won that gold medal 33 years ago. He then put his thumbs up for more photos.
“L.A. will host the Summer Olympics in 2028,” the Korea Daily told him. “Will you be back?”
Ha answered, “Of course. L.A. is where I was born as an adult.”
CAPTION: Hyung-joo Ha is attacking Douglas Vieira in the final of the judo’s 95 kilogram weight class. He won the gold medal after defeating Vieira.
Hyung-joo Ha is currently a sports psychology professor at Dong-A University in South Korea.
By Sangho Hwang
