'My next goal is first place at the LA Olympics'

Kang Jun-i of South Korea competes in the men's street skateboarding final at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on Sunday. Kang won the gold medal. [Yonhap]
Kang Jun-i of South Korea competes in the men's street skateboarding final at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on Sunday. Kang won the gold medal. [Yonhap]

Kang Jun-i, 17, had fallen on the same trick twice and was in tears. Then he spotted his mother in the stands — and steadied himself.

"After I fell on my second trick attempt, I thought, 'I've prepared so hard for this — is it really going to end like this?'" Kang said Sunday after claiming gold in men's street skateboarding at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

He had failed twice in a row on the high-difficulty move known as a nollie 270 heelflip lipslide. "Seeing the people cheering for me in the stands, and my mother, helped me pull myself together," he said. "I told myself that since they had always believed in me, this was the moment I truly had to repay that faith."

For his third and final run, Kang chose not to lower the difficulty — he went back to the exact same trick that had beaten him twice. This time, he landed it perfectly. He let out a roar the moment his board touched the ground, and the tears came again, this time from joy rather than despair.

Kang finished with a total score of 180.85 points to take the top spot, becoming South Korea's first gold medalist in skateboarding since the sport was introduced as an official Asian Games discipline at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games.

Kang picked up a skateboard at age 8. Growing up in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province, he had no proper training facility nearby and rode overnight buses to Seoul every weekend to practice. "Ever since those days, winning an Asian Games gold medal was my biggest dream," he said. "I can't believe I've actually made it real."

Kang turns 18 in two days. "I told my friends I didn't know whether this birthday would be a happy one or a tearful one, depending on how the Asian Games went," he said with a laugh. "Thankfully, it looks like it'll be a happy one."

With his Asian Games goal now behind him, Kang is already looking higher. "My biggest goal right now is to finish first at the LA Olympics," he said.


yjc@heraldcorp.com