Kim Hang-Song

Happy birthday to South Korea’s sprinter Kim Han-song, who won a national title and set two personal bests on the same weekend.

September 2024, the National University Championships. Kim won the 100m in 12.27 and took silver in the 200m in 25.44. Both were lifetime bests, set two days apart, and her Inha University teammate came second in the 100m behind her, so the programme she captained went one-two at a national championships.

She has a better one than that, though. At a national meet in Iksan she won the university 100m final in 12.59 into a headwind of 3.4 metres per second. Anyone can look quick with the wind behind them. Winning a national final while the air is actively pushing you backwards tells you what she is made of.

She has been doing this a long time. She was a triple champion at a national championships as a middle-school runner in Seongnam, and the meet’s outstanding athlete at a national elementary championships before that. She now runs for the Namdong-gu team in Incheon, and her stated ambition is to become a Korean woman who runs the 100m in under 12 seconds.

Her own words, and we could not have written a better line for this magazine: the moment you stand on the start line, age and experience mean nothing. We are all equal athletes.

생일 축하해요, 한송 씨! 건강하고 행복한 한 해 되세요 — 오늘은 미역국 드시고요. 파이팅! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇰🇷