The icy relations between North and South Korea thawed a bit in the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.
Photo Courtesy of WOAI
Despite Kim Jong-un’s call for “independent unification” free from the interference of other countries, in particular the U.S., the Korean women’s hockey coach was 29-year-old Minnesota-native Sarah Murray.
Facing a situation that she never expected, Ms. Murray was forced to merge her original Olympic team with 12 unfamiliar and less prepared North Korean athletes only two weeks prior to the Olympics. Further, the Olympic Committee dictated that Ms. Murray use at least 3 North Korean players in each game.
Former NHL coach Andy Murray knew his daughter, Sarah was up to the task of coaching South Korea’s women’s team. But the former Los Angeles Kings coach never anticipated that Sarah would find herself at the center of a diplomatic faceoff with the whole world watching.
A rookie both to coaching and to press coverage, Ms. Murray attempted to answer questions in a scene her father said appeared more fitting for a post-game press event during the Stanley Cup.
“This whole situation is out of our control, so we’re trying to make the best of it,” Ms. Murray said. “When I heard the North Korean women were joining our team, I thought worst-case scenario, we are going to be separate, our players are not going to talk (to each other),” she said.
Corporate sponsorship
Past Olympic teams are not without the experience of Los Angeles media coaching for such commercial sponsors as Max Factor Waterproof makeup and VISA.
Gold medalists in synchronized swimming, twin sisters Sarah and Karen Josephson got READY FOR MEDIA when they won gold in the Women’s duet at the 1982 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and received silver medals in the same event at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, when America dominated the sport.
Surprised
Experience teaches. A now, more media-savvy Ms. Murray concluded that she was pleasantly surprised with how the players from the two nations came together. She says that the South Korean players even helped teach the North Korean players throughout this process.
“The chemistry is better than I could have expected,” she said.
“Our team being put together was a political statement but now that the team is together, we are just one team,” Ms. Murray said. “Now it is hockey and we are here to compete.”
Originally brought to South Korea in 2014 to prepare women’s ice hockey for the Olympics, Ms. Murray has been asked to continue for at least the next two years.
“After everything we’ve been through and how much progress we’ve made … I definitely want to stay on.”
Checkmate to Kim Jong-un. It took an American coach to make it happen!