ASIA / PACIFIC
March 5, 2018
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
The “Garlic Girls”: South Korean curlers a global sensation
SILVER STUNNERS. South Korea’s Kim
Seon-yeong, left, sweeps ice with her teammate dur-
ing a match against Russian athletes at the 2018 Win-
ter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea. The team
known as the “Garlic Girls” came into the Pyeong-
Chang Games as the underdog who few believed
would earn a medal. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
By Kristen Gelineau
and Hyung-Jin Kim
The Associated Press
G
packed with screaming, flag-fluttering
Koreans who leapt to their feet to cheer on
the women’s stunningly precise shots. One
fan in the crowd at one match waved what
appeared to be a hand-drawn portrait of
skip Kim Eun-jung with her trademark
spectacles.
The excitement surrounding the women
even prompted a few dozen senior citizens
from the southern city of Jaecheon to
charter a bus to the arena so they could
revel in the country’s newfound curling
prestige.
“I actually don’t know curling rules, so I
have to find out what’s going on from
people sitting next to me,” said Yang
Chang-nam, 77. “I feel very good as the
South Korean team is doing well.”
That curling has gained any prominence
in Korea is surprising in itself. Korea
didn’t even have a team in Olympic curling
until the 2014 Sochi Games.
It took Koreans a while to wake up to
curling, largely because the country lacked
sufficient facilities until recent years, Kim
Young, a curling legend who started the
Korean Curling Club in 1988, said by
e-mail. Now, he says, Korea has six
dedicated curling arenas, and many
schools have curling teams.
In 2006, South Korea’s first curling
center was built in the rural town of
Uiseong. Four of the five team members
attended Uiseong Women’s High School,
where they were on the school’s curling
team. Uiseong’s reputation as the nation’s
default curling capital slowly grew, and
the curling center has hosted about 15
major domestic and international curling
events.
Still, until the women’s team began their
surprise winning streak in PyeongChang,
Uiseong was better known for its prolific
Hey Yeong-mi: South Korean
businesses join curling craze
By Youkyung Lee
The Associated Press
S
EOUL, South Korea — In South
Korea’s sudden craze for curling, it
really is all in a name.
Free flights and baseball tickets are just
some of the freebies South Korean
companies are offering to anyone named
Yeong-mi (yuhng-MEE), the first name of
the lead sweeper for the women’s curling
team that won an unexpected silver medal
at the recent Winter Olympics in Pyeong-
Chang, South Korea.
The five-member team, from a remote
province famous for its garlic, captured
hearts in a country that hardly knew
curling before. Dubbed the Garlic Girls,
they have become sought-after models for
commercials and inspired countless online
memes and catch-phrases.
Among them is “Yeong-mi ya,” or “Hey
Yeong-mi,” which the team’s skip, or
captain, repeatedly called out to give
guidance to lead sweeper Kim Yeong-mi.
Commentators dissected the skip’s
intentions based on how she called Kim’s
name or how many times she said
“Yeong-mi,” a common first name.
And so a marketing campaign was born.
Budget carrier Tway Air is giving away
200 roundtrip tickets to Nagoya, Japan, to
people named Yeong-mi. Hundreds have
left a comment on the airline’s website
identifying themselves as Oh Yeong-mi,
Cho Yeong-mi, Lee Yeong-mi, etc.
The Samsung Blue Wings baseball team
is inviting anyone with the name to its
opening day K-League game. The Lotte
World amusement park is offering dis-
counts through mid-March to people who
have either “Yeong” or “Mi” in their names.
In the team’s home province of North
Gyeongsang, the BlueOne Water Park is
being even more generous: It is giving free
entrance to those sharing the first name of
any of the five team members.
Curling is relatively new to South
Korea. The first curling center opened in
2006 in Uiseong, where four of the five
Garlic Girls attended the same high
school. The team, which came into the
Olympics ranked eighth in the world,
Continued on page 8
garlic production.
Koreans consider garlic a health food
that boosts stamina. Seo Eun Ha, a
26-year-old Garlic Girls fan, believes garlic
may have contributed to the team’s
success. (She also credits the women’s good
teamwork and strong relationships.)
Like many fans at Gangneung, Seo is
particularly fond of the curlers’ unusual
nicknames: Sunny, Steak, Pancake, Annie
(a brand of yogurt), and ChoCho (a type of
cookie).
“I think their nicknames go well with
their lively images,” Seo said. “I like ‘Steak’
the most. It sounds so funny and unique.”
The nicknames started as a gag over
breakfast one day, said Kim, the coach.
The women were talking about how
difficult it was for athletes from other
countries to pronounce their names at
international competitions. All five team
members and their coach also share the
same surname — Kim, which is very
common in Korea — making their names
even more confounding for foreigners.
Kim Seon-yeong, who was eating a
sunny-side-up fried egg, joked that she
could go by the name “Sunny.” The other
women loved the idea. They each opted to
nickname themselves after the English
words for their favorite breakfast foods,
figuring that would be easier for others to
grasp.
Though the women’s team received
much of the attention, Korean fans went
wild for the men, too. After one men’s
match, a player from the Korean team
began throwing t-shirts into the crowd,
which surged forward with outstretched
arms.
Kim Heae Darm, a fan who leaped up
and managed to snag a shirt sailing
overhead, pressed it to her face and
screamed with glee. She then turned to
capturing the attention of Korean mixed
doubles player Lee Ki-jeong, who scrawled
his autograph in her notebook.
As she struggled to catch her breath, she
explained her excitement by noting that
Lee was strong, athletic, and “very
handsome.”
“I like them so much!” she squealed.
Kim believes the exposure the sport has
received in PyeongChang will lead to an
influx of new curlers in the country,
particularly because parents will support
children taking it up.
As for the success of the women’s team,
Kim, the founder of the curling club,
couldn’t be prouder. “They are heroes!” he
said.
Yet the Garlic Girls do have one request:
Maybe someone could come up with a nicer
team name for them?
“We would prefer the name ‘Team Kim,’”
Kim, the coach, said with a laugh.
“Because although our hometown is
Uiseong — which is related to garlic — we
have no relationship with garlic at all.”
Kristen Gelineau and Hyung-jin Kim, Australia
bureau chief and Seoul correspondent respectively
for The Associated Press, were on assignment
at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
2017 Most Honored
Elder Award Recipient
Benny Avecilla
Benny Avecilla was born in Sorsogon, the Philippines, the son of Gregorio
Madrid Avecilla and Irene Otano. He was married for 54 years to the late Carmen
Deona Avecilla, an engineer, and has five daughters: Lorna, Maryanne, Gail,
Lynn, and Sheila. While living in the Philippines, he
worked for the Emerito Ramos Corporations as an
accountant, office manager, and assistant vice
president. Benny immigrated to the U.S. in April of
1977 and ended up in Portland via San Francisco. He
worked for the West Coast Marine Co. as an
accountant, and later was employed by the St. Paul
Insurance Company until his retirement. He has
been an active member of the Filipino-American
Association of Portland & Vicinity since 1980 and
served as chairman of the board for three years and
president for eight years during his nearly four
decades with the organization. He volunteers with
St. Ignatius Church as well as the Meals on Wheels
program of Loaves & Fishes. He is an avid bowler and organized the Fil-Am
bowling league. He currently serves as the international director of the Filipino
Canadian American (FilCanAm) Bowling Tournament. Benny has five
grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter.
AR Photo/Jan Landis
ANGNEUNG, South Korea —
Forget Lindsey Vonn and Adam
Rippon. The real rock stars of the
PyeongChang Olympics were a humble
group of Korean curlers who had no idea
they’d become a global sensation.
They are known as the “Garlic Girls,”
the South Korean women’s curling team
with the fairytale story whose moniker
reflects the locally famed garlic grown in
their hometown. Never considered a medal
contender coming into PyeongChang, they
have rose to No. 1 in the rankings, earning
worldwide attention for their fierce talent
and funny personalities.
And yet the Garlic Girls were almost
totally sheltered from the international
frenzy both by personal choice — they
switched off their phones during the
games to block outside attention — and by
a protective coach who is keenly aware
that curling is as much a mental game as a
physical one.
After a match, the women were quickly
shuffled past waiting reporters, giving
journalists apologetic smiles and greetings
of Anyonghaseyo! (hello) before vanishing.
None of them, said coach Kim Min-jung,
were aware that they’d become superstars.
“I’m sorry that I could not bring the
athletes today, because I’m worried there
will be too much pressure and burden on
them,” Kim said. “Even the crowd is too
interested in them.”
That interest is understandable. The
Garlic Girls seem tailor-made for stardom.
The wildly skilled underdogs came into
the Olympics ranked eighth in the world
and went on to crush curling heavyweights
including Canada and Sweden. They are
cute and comical, referring to themselves
by quirky nicknames such as “Pancake”
and “Steak.”
Two teammates are sisters and all are
longtime friends, creating irresistible
chemistry on the ice. The team’s “skip,” or
captain, has a steely gaze and funky,
owl-eyed glasses that have become fodder
for endless internet memes.
Many Koreans who had never seen a
curling match nonetheless travelled to
remote Gangneung to peek at their
nation’s new darlings in person.
“I’m very proud of them,” said Lee Ji
Sun, a 26-year-old who had never been
inside a curling arena before one of the
Olympic matches. They are “showing we
can do well even in new sport events.”
Every match featuring the team was
The Asian Reporter Foundation is accepting nominations
for its 2018 “Most Honored Elder” awards.
The recognition banquet will be held Thursday, April 26, 2018 at southeast
Portland’s Wong’s King Seafood Restaurant. Nomination forms and guidelines
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The nomination deadline is
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