2 April 2025
Young Korea team aim to make their mark at World Men’s
With three team members being 22 years of age, and one aged only 21, Korea is represented at the BKT World Men’s Curling Championship 2025 by one of the youngest teams ever to take part in a curling world championship.
And while they have found the competition and the standard of opponent to be challenging, they are determined to come away from Moose Jaw as a stronger team than when they arrived. Fourth player Kim Changmin put their position in perspective and said, “The field is great and some of the players are our idols.
“But we came to this tournament to try to win, to compete with them and not to idolise them.”
But who are they? And what is their background? Fourth player Kim Changmin explained, “We come from a region in Korea called Uiseong, in the south-east, and about three hours from Seoul.
“Our region has the first dedicated curling facility in Korea, so curling was always a hobby in our area. We all started at Kyungil University as a student team and then the regional government put this team together and integrated everyone.”
Now, as lead player Pyo Jeongmin explained, “We are all now full-time curlers.”
Pyo also said, “The top of the field here are teams that are top of the world. We’ve not yet played our best at this event, but we want to overcome that in the rest of the event and then show our best.”
While team Kim has earned the right to be at the championship in Moose Jaw, there is no certainty that they will continue wearing the colours of Korea after that.
Kim Changmin explained, “In June we have the national championship, and who ever wins that will go on to represent Korea next year.”
However, he added, “We are planning that it will be us.”
Despite struggling for positive results, this young Korean team are enjoying their time and experience in Canada.
Kim Changmin said, “The audience is amazing. We’ve never got to play in front of this kind of crowd before, so this is something that we’ve been dreaming of.”
With Korea having just successfully hosted the LGT Women’s World Curling Championship 2025 in Uijeongbu, on the outskirts of Seoul — the latest in a long line of successful curling championships to be held in Korea, up to and including the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games —curling in Korea seems to have a strong base.
And this young team of former students from Uiseong seem determined to write their own chapter in that success story.
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