Teenagers Can Also Show World-Class Skills…

However, within just three days of the Olympics’ opening, after securing 5 gold medals, they raised their goal to 10. What’s even more remarkable is that 3 out of the 5 gold medals were won by teenagers.

Ban Hyo-jin (17 years old) in the air rifle, Oh Ye-jin (19 years old) in the air pistol, Nam Su-hyun (19 years old) in the women’s archery team event, and Kim Je-deok, who, at age 20 this year, won a gold medal in the men’s archery team event, previously demonstrated his prowess by winning two gold medals at just 17 during the last Tokyo Olympics.

Examining cases of teenagers who have won world championships in fields beyond sports, we find that 18-year-old Lim Yun-chan won the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, 16-year-old Lee Chang-ho won the 1992 Ing Cup World Go Championship, 17-year-old Bae Jun-sik won the 2006 FIFA Interactive World Cup World Video Game Championship, and 17-year-old Lee Do-hyun won the 2019 Red Bull World Dance Championship.

A major change in the trend at this competition is that the only team game event was women’s handball, and the diversity of events increased to events that focus on individual skills rather than team organization. The factors that enabled these teenagers to demonstrate world-class skills are as follows.

First, everyone has innate talent, and if you discover it early and hone it, you can have world-class skills regardless of your age. However, it is not just about honing it; you have to continuously invest time in it, forgetting about other things and focusing on it consistently.

Second, we need to break away from the seniority-based organizational culture and select players fairly based solely on their skills, and provide them with systematic and proactive support.

Third, we need to break away from a narrow perspective and provide opportunities to expand global horizons. I think it is important to awaken them to how vast the world is and how many diverse talents there are.

Looking at these cases, I think that innovation in our education system is particularly urgent. Our long-term, entrance exam-oriented education ignores each individual’s talents and mass-produces machines that study well (get good grades) by fitting them into a framework. I believe that there needs to be a groundbreaking change in the way parents raise their children as we enter an era where AI surpasses human capabilities.

In addition, it would be great if adults also accepted the above lessons, found fields where they can fully demonstrate their talents and aptitudes, and steadily immersed themselves in them to achieve self-realization and live happy lives.

YB