one of the lefties representing Korean baseball, announced his retirement from the national team. Beijing Olympic gold medalists are leaving like that.
The Korean national team, led by coach Lee 스포츠토토 Kang-cheol, completed the schedule for the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) and returned home via Incheon International Airport on the 14th.
After 2013 and 2017, they returned with a disappointing result of being eliminated from the group stage for three consecutive tournaments. Head coach Lee Kang-cheol met the reporters as a representative of the team and wrapped up the players who worked hard, saying, “I was wrong. I will take all the blame,” he bowed his head.
The players left the airport with heavy expressions. Kim Gwang-hyun also left quietly. He showed disappointing results to baseball fans, so no one was in the mood to talk to him with a smile.
Instead, Kwang-Hyun Kim conveyed his apologetic feelings to fans through social media on the way to his house. He also announced his retirement from the national team. Now, he revealed that he would pass on Taegeuk Mart to his juniors.
Kim Gwang-hyun, who said, “Thank you for supporting the national team member Kim Kwang-hyun so far,” said, “National team was a dream and pride. He posted a post saying, “I feel proud of myself for playing for the country and Korean baseball from the 2005 youth national team to this 2023 WBC.”
Even when Kim Gwang-hyun met reporters in Vero Beach, Florida, USA, where his team’s SSG 1st spring camp was set up on the 12th of last month, “I was always proud to wear the Taegeuk mark and run. It is a truly honorable position,” he said.
At the gaze of ‘Is it still Kim Gwang-hyun and Yang Hyeon-jong?’, Kim Gwang-hyun said, “It is a great experience to go to the national team. The best players gather. He learns by watching how he practices and how he plays. I have a lot of experience with the national team, but I still have things to learn,” he said. “I feel a lot of pride. The phrase ‘is it still Kim Kwang-hyun’ makes me feel proud in its own way. It’s because it makes me feel that I have a competitive edge even when I’m with younger juniors.”
After this tournament, he decided to retire from the national team. Of course, this is somewhat expected. The competitions Kim Gwang-hyun can participate in are the 2026 WBC competition in the next three years or the 2028 Olympics scheduled to be held in Los Angeles, USA. Previously, baseball was omitted from the Olympics scheduled to be held in Paris, France in July 2024.
In 2026, Kim Gwang-hyun, who is good at managing himself, will be able to play for his team, but then it is time to hand over his position to his juniors. In three years, Kim Gwang-hyun will be 38 years old. If Kim Gwang-hyun does well and wears the Taegeuk mark, it means that he has no successor. It is something to worry about in Korean baseball.
The decision has been made. Now, Kim Gwang-hyun wearing the Taegeuk mark on active duty cannot be seen. Kim Gwang-hyun said, “I grew a lot while playing for his national team, and I learned a lot. The feeling he felt when he competed with the national flag on his chest and the time he sang the national anthem with a gold medal hanging around his neck is something he will be proud of and proud of for the rest of his life.”
Lee Seung-yeop (head coach of the Doosan Bears) who retired at the end of the 2017 season, Jeong Geun-woo who retired after the 2020 season, and Lee Dae-ho, whose last season last year, have all retired from active service one by one.
Oh Seung-hwan (Samsung Lions), born in 1982, remains, and many of them, including Kim Hyeon-soo (LG Twins), Ryu Hyun-jin (Toronto Blue Jays), and Kang Min-ho (Samsung), who were young at the time of the Beijing Olympics, are still in their late 30s or 40s.
After the Beijing Olympics, players who continued their winning streak with gold medals at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou left one by one. Kim Hyun-soo, who captained the WBC tournament, is 35 years old. It is quite an age.
There are some players who have not directly announced their retirement from the national team, but considering the timing of the next international competition, it seems that the Beijing Olympic protagonists running with the Taegeuk mark should be kept as a trace.