Kim Tae-Woo (

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...

: 김태우,

Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...

: 金泰雨; born March 7, 1962, in

Gimje Gimje () (''Gimje-si'') is a city in North Jeolla Province, South Korea. History The Gimje area is located on the "great plains" of Korea and has been cultivated since ancient times. Nations of early date ascended in the year 200. The Baekje Kingd ...

Jeollabuk-do North Jeolla Province (; ''Jeollabuk-do''), also known as Jeonbuk, is a province of South Korea. North Jeolla has a population of 1,869,711 (2015) and has a geographic area of 8,067 km2 (3,115 sq mi) located in the Honam region in the southwest ...

) is a retired

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

freestyle wrestler Freestyle wrestling is a style of wrestling originated from Great Britain and the United States. Along with Greco-Roman, it is one of the two styles of wrestling contested in the Olympic Games. American high school and men's college wrestling i ...

, four-time Olympian and Olympic Bronze Medalist. Kim represented South Korea for 15 years in freestyle wrestling and is considered the greatest South Korean heavyweight wrestler of all time.

Career

Kim received significant international attention at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

where he won the bronze medal in the freestyle 90 kg class. Kim won two consecutive gold medals in the freestyle wrestling 100 kg class at the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...

(

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

and

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

). However, Kim was given a nickname ''unlucky fourth place player'', finishing in fourth place at the

1991 World Wrestling Championships The following is the final results of the 1991 World Wrestling Championships. Men's competition were held in Varna, Bulgaria and Women's competition were held in Tokyo, Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an is ...

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

1993 World Wrestling Championships The following is the final results of the 1993 World Wrestling Championships. Men's freestyle competition were held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Men's Greco-Roman competition were held in Stockholm, Sweden and Women's competition were held in Stave ...

and

1996 Asian Wrestling Championships The 1996 Asian Wrestling Championships were held in Xiaoshan, China. The event took place from April 4 to April 10, 1996. It acted as the Asian qualifying tournament for the 1996 Summer Olympics wrestling tournament. The first women's tournament ...

. Kim officially retired from competitive wrestling after the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

and began his coach career. He was named the head coach of the South Korean national freestyle wrestling team for the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

and

2002 Asian Games The 2002 Asian Games ( ko, 2002년 아시아 경기대회/2002년 아시안 게임, Icheoni-nyeon Asia gyeonggi daehoe/Icheoni-nyeon Asian Geim), officially known as the XIV Asian Games ( ko, 제14회 아시아 경기대회/제14회 아시안 � ...

. Kim currently lives in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, running his own business.

External links

*Kim Tae-Woo's profile fro
sports-references
1962 births Living people South Korean wrestlers Olympic wrestlers for South Korea Wrestlers at the 1984 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 1988 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 1996 Summer Olympics South Korean male sport wrestlers Olympic bronze medalists for South Korea Olympic medalists in wrestling Asian Games medalists in wrestling Wrestlers at the 1990 Asian Games Wrestlers at the 1994 Asian Games Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Asian Games gold medalists for South Korea Medalists at the 1990 Asian Games Medalists at the 1994 Asian Games People from Gimje Sportspeople from North Jeolla Province 20th-century South Korean people 21st-century South Korean people {{SouthKorea-wrestling-bio-stub