Why did Viktor An change his citizenship? Question of choice

Every sport is a mystery! Some - more, some - in less. The average viewer sees only what he is presented with a TV screen, namely a competitive picture. However, few people know what intrigues are spinning in behind-the-scenes games. One of such intrigues has been worrying for a few months now the masses of the Russian Federation. "What's the one?" - you ask. About this below.

How Victor An discovered for Russia a short track

About such a sport, as a short track, the Russian viewer until recently did not suspect at all.

Only the light of the Olympics opened it for our people, and along with it, perhaps, the main Sochi mystery was added - the question of why Viktor An changed his citizenship, why he is in favor of Russia. As you understand, the cover of mystery is connected with the hero of the 2014 Olympic Games Viktor Anom, who brought the Russian team three gold. There are many assumptions, but in order to understand everything, first you need to know the entire history of the newly-made Russian.

The first steps in the world of sports

As an athlete, our hero was, while still a citizen of South Korea. In the distant 2002, young, but no less talented, the guy looked at the Korea Championship on the short track among juniors then head coach of this Asian team. An Hyun Soo, namely, his parents gave such a name to our hero, even then he stood out among his peers, thus attracting the attention of such a significant person. After winning the competition, the future absolute world champion was invited to the main national team of the country on the short track.

It is difficult to guess what the coach was motivated by - a proven instinct or overestimation in his own infallibility, but he insisted that An Heng Su (Victor An), whose biography did not have a single race at an adult level, went to the Olympic Games in Salt Lake -City. Incredibly, a sixteen-year-old boy, unknown to anyone, took a place in the team, leaving, by the way, behind the silver medalist of the previous World Cup, only at the coach's whim. It is unlikely that this is possible in the current reality. Be that as it may, the young Korean participated in his first games, where he managed to achieve the 4th place at a distance of 1000 m.

The era of An Heng Su

The heyday of An Heng Su's career began literally from the next season and fell on 2003-2007. During this period, he became the absolute world champion five times in a row, taking 11 gold awards of world championships, five silver medals and one bronze medal, which was not very appreciated against the background. It was truly his epoch, which he once again proved at the 2006 Olympics.

Predturinskie collisions

Travel to the Italian Turin was preceded by a number of scandals in the Korean national team associated with the protectorism. The fact is that in South Korea there are strong inter-religious strife, and in the team for the position of the leader often coaches nominated an athlete from a higher educational institution, in which they teach themselves. Initially, such a privilege was used by An Heng Su, because of what fell into disfavor half of the team, and on the eve of the Turin Olympics he was already on a kind of roadside, without the help of partners. But An did not tolerate such a state of affairs, and together with five more members of the team accused the new head coach Yun Zhe Meng of juggling the results. As a result, the scandal was hushed up, but the leader of the team began to boycott frankly. Obviously, these events are the first grain of the answer to the question of why Viktor An changed his citizenship. In general, with such a luggage of passions within the team, the athletes went to Turin.

Turin Triumph

The story of the squabbling in the Korean short-track team was on everyone's ears. And the more unexpectedly against this background was the absolute domination of An Heng Su on the ice track of the Italian capital of the Olympic Games. The Korean sportsman won three gold, sweeping away rivals from his path. A nice addition was the bronze medal at a distance of 500 meters. It was nothing but the triumph of a Korean athlete.

A succession of injuries and failures

Two years passed, An Heng Su was swimming on the waves of success, crushing rivals at a distance. But in one terrible moment everything changed. On one of the trainings, An unsuccessfully went to the turn, for which he paid a lot. The payment was a serious knee injury, several operations and two years of recovery. As a result, 2008 and part of 2009 were missed, and together with them all preparations for the Vancouver Olympics. However, the future citizen Viktor An, whose trauma plunged the whole world into shock, refused to surrender. Before the qualifying start there was nothing left, but he was going to come to the form and show everything he could.

Let the desire beat over the edge, but the miracle did not happen. The selection was finished in ninth place, Vancouver was lost. Further troubles followed one after another. Each of them explains in his own way why Viktor An changed his citizenship and became a Russian.

The next significant fight in the schedule of the famous short tracker was the intra-Korean competition for the right to speak at the World Cup. However, here he was in for a failure. In the period of preparation of An Heng Su (Victor An), the short track for which was a matter of all life, lost the team. I had to look for a new one, but I could not find everything. As a result, in conditions of "no training" in the selection for the next world championship, An occupied only the fifth place and again was not selected among the top three. The former champion was on his knees, but was not going to surrender.

Russia the Savior

After a while, an offer was received from the Russian federation of the short track, according to which, with his consent, the leader of the national team would be Victor An. He, even after some hesitation, accepted and changed his real name An Heng Su on all of us known Victor An. How happy this story ended, perhaps, it is not necessary to tell. It remains only to hope that with Viktor Anom the new pages of the Russian short track will be covered with even greater champion achievements.

That's it, the life of Victor An before coming to Russia. As you can see, the question of why Viktor An changed his citizenship is easily explained, because he had enough reasons to change the Korean flag to Russian. We still wish him only luck and triumph at the Moscow World Cup.