Kuala Lumpur: Shon Seung-mo is a former badminton player from South Korea and won the men’s singles silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Shon was playing badminton with an almost blind right eye throughout his professional career, after being hit in the eye by a shuttlecock when he was 15 years old.
In Korea, which has traditionally been a powerhouse in doubles, did not have high expectations for men’s singles in the Olympics, let alone Shon was not the highest ranked Korean men’s singles player in the Athens Games, it was Lee Hyun-il who was ranked World No. 4 at that time.
He played in the 2000 Sydney and the 2004 Athens Olympics. At the 2004 Olympics, Lee Hyun-il was seeded fifth, while Son was seeded seventh.
When Lee lost in the round of 16 to Boonsak Ponsana 13-15, 11-15, no one would expect Shon to go too far in the Athens Games because he was drawn to face second-seeded Chen Hong of China and eighth-seeded Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia at the bottom half of the draw.
However, Shon started making a surprise run in Athens when he defeated Chen Hong who was ranked World No. 2 at that time 10-15, 15-4, 15-10 in the quarterfinals, and carrying that momentum to produce an extraordinary semi-final performance against 8th seeded Sony Dwi Kuncoro by outlasted the Indonesian 15-6, 9-15, 15-9 to enter the finals.
In the final against Indonesia’s badminton legend, Taufik Hidayat, Shon took a huge 7-0 lead in the first set with a very well-controlled play. However, he was then caught off guard by Hidayat’s relentless attacks and smashes, losing 14 consecutive points to Hidayat before collapsing 8-15 in the first set.
Shon was struggling in the second set and had no answers to Hidayat’s aggressive displays. He went down 7-15 in the second set and had to settle for the silver medal.
The silver medal won by Shon was the first men’s singles Olympic medal and still, the only medal in the Olympic men’s singles category won by a Korean badminton player.
Shon underwent cornea transplant surgery to replace part of his cornea with corneal tissue from a donor after being hit by a shuttlecock while studying at Miryang High School. Despite the disadvantage of having disabilities in his eyes, he continued to train hard, to eventually make the Korean national team.
Shon has shown that excellence is more than just a result. It’s persistence. It’s never giving up on your dreams.
The main character (Yoon Hae-Kang – an ex badminton prodigy and baseball enthusiast) of the 2021 Korean SBS TV series – Racket Boys, was created based on the story Shon Seung-mo.
