The Olympics are an exciting time for sports fans, but there are some families in Drumheller that are even more excited to see Korea hosting the games.
Korea –born Chi Ha Park is the owner of Valley Esso, and he was up early last Friday morning to watch the Opening Ceremonies for the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics.
He said the ceremonies were very good and was excited to see Kim Yuna, who won the gold medal in figure skating at the Vancouver Olympics, light the Olympic Flame.
Park has been in Canada since 1998 and has lots of family in Korea, including his son Tommy who travelled to Korea for the Olympics. Park plans to watch as much of the games as possible. He is also excited to see Korea and its culture showcased on an international stage.
Beyond the simple sports and venues, he is excited about the political implication of the games. He is happy that North Korea is in the games. His wish is for a peaceful Olympics and is encouraged because this might be a start to repairing the relationships between the two nations and making one country.
He was born in 1954, shortly after the Korean War, and grew up in a poor struggling country. After the war, not only the country, but also families were divided. He says PyeongChang itself is in a divided province.
South Korea has since grown in economic strength over the years and in 1988 hosted the Summer Olympics, the same year Calgary hosted the winter games. Park says he sees parallels, with the games in Canada in 2010 and possibly Calgary in the future. He was happy to see Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi at the games. Next time he would also like to see Drumheller’s mayor.
If Calgary wins the bid, he said he would like to see Drumheller get involved and see some of the great ideas that would help our community to succeed.