[Archive] OH Kwang Hun: “I thought it would be difficult to succeed as a table tennis player, so when I was 22, I decided to become a coach.”

OH Kwang Hun [Former Head Coach of the South Korea Women’s National Team] Vol. 1

OH Kwang Hun has 22 years of coaching experience in Japan and 10 years in South Korea. He has walked a long road in coaching. The online interview ran for more than two hours. I reflected on the letter OH Kwang Hun gave to Shin Yubin. There was a story behind the two medals South Korea won at the Olympics. This is an exclusive long interview with OH Kwang Hun, who resigned as head coach of the South Korean national team after the Paris Olympics. <2024 Interview>

OH Kwang Hun  Oh Gwang-hun

Born September 9, 1970, in Bucheon, South Korea. He began coaching Seoul Commercial High School as a professional table tennis coach at 22, and moved to Japan at 24, where he served as head coach of Shukutoku Junior College (later Shukutoku University). After that, he became coach of the Japanese women’s national team and head coach of the women’s junior national team. He returned to South Korea in 2017, went on to coach a corporate team, and in 2022 became head coach of the South Korea women’s national team. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, he won two medals in Mixed Doubles and the women’s team event. He currently serves as GM of the corporate team Boram

I was born in Korea, but I didn’t achieve much as a player. So winning medals at the Olympics made me incredibly happy.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, South Korea won its first-ever medal in Mixed Doubles and its first team medal in four Games.

Until then, the unwritten rule had been to appoint as national team head coach only people with a proven record as players. That rule was broken by Ryu Seung-min, who was president of the Korea Table Tennis Association in 2021 and an Olympic gold medalist. He put in place an open call for national team head coach, and OH Kwang Hun stepped forward and was selected for the role.

OH Kwang Hun, who became a professional table tennis coach at 22, built up his coaching career in Japan and then returned to South Korea to become national team head coach. His path is unusual.

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●ーFirst of all, thank you for your hard work at the Paris Olympics. It seems things were tough after you returned to South Korea.

OH Kwang Hun (hereafter OH)　Yes. I came back from Paris on August 12, and a TV station wanted to make a documentary, so they filmed me for about 10 days. It aired on September 19.

My life. How I lived in Japan, when I started developing Japanese table tennis players, South Korea table tennis, my life in South Korea, and so on. They also filmed me having meals with colleagues and with my family, and it aired on September 19.

●ーWas the response big?

OH　Yes. It had a different atmosphere from last year’s Asian Games. I really felt how great the Olympics are.

●ーParis was your first Olympics, right?

OH　It was my second. My first was the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. I took part with Coach Kyo Hwang Murakami (former Japan national team head coach and Nippon Life Red Elf coach) while I was working as an assistant coach under him.