Unified Korean ice hockey coach sheds a tear after team’s final match

Coach Sarah Murray sheds a tear after the close of the unified Korean women’s hockey team’s final match against Sweden at the Kwangdong Hockey Center on Feb. 20. Next to her is North Korean coach Park Chul-ho. (by Park Jong-shik, staff photographer)

“It’s going to be a sad goodbye” when North Koreans return home, says Coach Sarah Murray

Sarah Murray, head coach for the unified Korean women’s ice hockey team, finally shed a tear after a match at Catholic Kwandong University Gymnasium on Feb. 20. Her team had lost 1-6 to Sweden in a classification match to decide the seventh and eighth ranking positions at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

“I don’t know what to say when we have to say goodbye after the closing ceremony. It’s going to be a sad goodbye,” she said. “I’d like to coach for the unified team again if I get the chance,” she added.

The game against Sweden was the end of competition for the unified team, which took shape with 35 members when 12 North Korean athletes joined on Jan. 25. The team ended up in eighth place with a 0-5 record, scoring two goals while giving up 28. But rankings are not everything.

The unified team drew hordes of fans, selling out nearly every one of its matches, while player Randi Heesoo Griffin scored a debut Olympic goal against Japan. Other events at the Pyeongchang Games also enjoyed a box office boost thanks to the team. International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach praised the team as embodying the Olympic spirit, while IOC member and former US women’s hockey team member Angela Ruggiero said she would “love the team to get the Nobel Peace Prize.”

“The unified team players may lack strength and technique, but they’re tenacious fighters,” said Kim Hak-yong, a 64-year-old visitor from Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province.

“If we can’t see any more unified team matches, then it would be nice to have inter-Korean exchange matches or something like that. The unified team left the deepest impression from this Olympics,” Kim said.

The team’s lone goal on Feb. 20, scored in the first period by Han Soo-jin on a pass from Park Jong-ah, drew cheers – and some tears – from the fans.

“When I was put in charge of a unified team that was decided upon as a political statement just ahead of the Olympics, I didn’t know how I was going to unite the team,” Murray said.

“But I treated the South and North Korean players equally, and the players were totally committed to following along,” she added. “The players were the real heroes.”

Coach Sarah Murray sheds a tear after the close of the unified Korean women’s hockey team’s final match against Sweden at the Kwangdong Hockey Center on Feb. 20. Next to her is North Korean coach Park Chul-ho. (by Park Jong-shik, staff photographer)

”This will be remembered for a long time”

North Korean coach Pak Chol-ho contributed to the team’s cohesion by offering his full support to Murray. Goalie Shin So-jung, a key player on the unified team, said, “There was a lot of pressure on the unified team, but the North Korean players worked hard to blend in and did a good job following along.”

“This will be remembered for a long time,” Shin added.

With Murray’s decision on Feb. 20 to send in Lee Yeon-jeong and substitute goalie Han Do-hee, she made sure every South Korean player apart from the third substitute goalie had a chance to play on the Olympic stage. Of the 12 North Korean players, six – Jong Su-hyon, Ryo Song-hui, Kim Un-hyang, Hwang Chung-gum, Jin Ok, and Kim Hyang-mi – were included on the roster for at least one match each.

“It’s too bad. I hoped we might win,” said Kim Hyang-mi, who played for around four minutes against Sweden that day.

For the hockey players, there was only one Korea

Now the time has come for the unified team members to say goodbye. They will share the moving member of Park Jong-ah from South Korea and Jong Su-hyon from North Korea climbing the steps with the Olympics flame during the opening ceremony on Feb. 9. Their experiences as a single team could be the stuff of a movie – dancing and singing together in the locker room before matches, embracing one another after good plays, holding birthday parties, and walking along Gyeongpo Beach.

With the unified team playing their last match, the visitors arriving at 8 am to buy tickets may have felt a sense of hope for peace.

“More than any winning or losing, it’s good to see South and North Korean players competing together,” said Yu Bo-reum, a 27-year-old university student visiting the hockey arena with her mother from Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province.

After the match was over, the unified team players gathered at the center of the rink to shout, “One, two, three, team Korea!” For the athletes, there was just one Korea.

By Kim Chang-geum and Hwang Keum-bi, staff reporters

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