Kim Gwang-suk
| Kim Gwang-suk | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Country represented |
 North Korea
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| Born | February 15 (year disputed) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Women's artistic gymnastics | ||||||||||||||||||
| Level | Senior International | ||||||||||||||||||
| Head coach(es) | Kim Chun-phi | ||||||||||||||||||
| Eponymous skills | Counter-Kim (uneven bars) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Retired | 1993 | ||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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| Kim Gwang-suk | |
| Chosŏn'gŭl | 김광숙 |
|---|---|
| Revised Romanization | Gim Gwangsuk |
| McCune–Reischauer | Kim Kwangsuk |
Kim Gwang-suk (alternative transliteration Kim Kwang-suk, Hangul: 김광숙; born February 15, year unknown; 1976 or 1978 theorized) is a North Korean female gymnast who competed in the 1992 Summer Olympics. She is known for both her exemplary uneven bars work and for her involvement in one of the most prominent age falsification scandals in gymnastics in recent years.
Kim competed in several major international senior meets between 1989 and 1993, including the 1989 and 1991 World Championships, the 1990 Asian Games and the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. She was the 1991 World Champion on the uneven bars, winning the event with a perfect 10.0 score and a routine that included an original release move, the Counter-Kim. Her ten would be the very last to ever be awarded in World Championship competition.
Due to her small stature and the fact that the North Korean Gymnastics Federation listed her given age as 15 for three consecutive years, questions arose about Kim's age and eligibility for senior competition. By at least one estimate, she was as young as 11 when she competed at the 1989 World Championships. While her real age was never ascertained, it was discovered that the Federation had submitted inconsistent birth year information for her at least three times at three separate international competitions. As a result of the falsification, the North Korean women's gymnastics team was banned from the 1993 World Championships.
Kim was trained by coach Kim Chun-phi and was appearing on the international competitive circuit as early as 1987, when she performed at the Junior Friendship Tournament (Druzhba), winning a bronze medal on the uneven bars. She continued on to other international meets at both the junior and senior levels, including the 1988 Cottbus Cup, part of the World Cup circuit, where she placed a modest 17th in the all-around, and that year's Druzhba meet, where she once again placed third on bars and won an additional bronze with the North Korean team.
The following year, 1989, Kim participated in the World Championships with the North Korean team. While she finished out of the medals on every event, her innovative uneven bars routine attracted attention. Her set would still be considered exceptionally difficult by modern standards, with intricate combinations of pirouettes and releases. Kim also performed her own original release move, a Tkatchev-front flip toward the high bar. The skill came to be known in the Code of Points as the Counter-Kim; as of the 2008 Code of Points, it was classified as a difficult 'F' element. In 1990 Kim won a silver medal on bars and finished 4th on beam at the Asian Games in Beijing.
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