She was supposed to go home a champion with a gold medal around her neck. A Lam Shin (photos below) better known as Shin A-Lam in her native Korea, lost her quarterfinal match in overtime to Britta Heidemann sending the fencing champion into tears after a long protest from her coach. Watch the video below. She has now won the world over with her passion for winning juxtaposed against the agony of defeat in competitive athletics.
Photo: A Lam Shin
Video of controversial quarterfinal match is below.
Things were suppose to turn out differently in London for the gold medal favorite in the fencing match with Britta Heidemann of Germany. She was heavily favored but found herself fighting to a difficult 5-5 draw when regulation time expired. Then the challenger got the crucial point in overtime sending the expected champion to a bitter defeat.
Shin A-Lam then broke down into uncontrollable sobbing in the middle of the mat where moments before the historic fight was waged. Meanwhile her coach and team waged a protest, claiming that the winner’s point had been awarded just after the overtime period had expired. The clock had in fact frozen with one second to go, a problem apparently caused by shoddy scorekeeping at the event. She had her breakdown during all of the waiting time for the appeal to be considered. Undoubtedly what flashed through her mind was all of her training, hard work, and expectations that all seemed to go for naught. It was one of those moments that we can only see in sports.
Biography: A Lam Shin was born September 23d, 1986 which makes her 26 years old on her birthday later this year. She is a graduate of the Korea National Sport University in 2009 with a degree in physical education, where she was an outstanding star and honed her world-class craft. You can find her Facebook page right here with her small 5’6″ tall frame and weight of 126 pounds. Her athletic profile from the London Olympics is right here, but she does not have a Twitter page.
Shin A-Lam comes from a talented family. Her uncle Shin Chan Sun is a professional musician and his mother a singer. Our hearts go out to her of course on this most difficult day for a competitor with her talents. Of course somebody has to win and somebody has to lose whether it is fencing or any other sport, so at the same time we should congratulate Britta Heidemann for her fine achievement over the heavily favored A Lam Shin.
Shin A-Lam Video (Olympics controversial decision)
