Korean Gymnast Arises from Poverty to Win Olympic Gold

From Korea Times: “Yang stood atop the podium after nailing an excellent pair of vaults including one judged to be the most difficult of the competition, which is even called ‘Yang Hak-seon’ after him. The three-twist front somersault was invented by the Korean and he is the only gymnast to currently execute it in the world. “As I was the last man to compete in the final, I planned to use the Yang Hak-seon when competitors posted more than 16.266 points,” he said. Yang took two big steps forward when he landed his first vault but the 7.4 difficulty rating _ two 10ths of a point higher than the second best competitor ― was enough to earn him 16.466. Then, he performed a 7.0 difficulty vault in his second effort to score 16.600 to bring the nation an elusive Olympic title.” Who doesn’t love a heart warming story about an underdog achieving the ultimate victory?