Photo: Park Sang-Hoon, the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Spain (left), is visiting the Spanish taekwondo gym where Adriana Cerezo Iglesias, the silver medalist in taekwondo at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, trains. He is presenting her with a black belt inscribed with the Korean phrase “Train hard, dream big.”
During the women’s gymnastics qualifiers at the 2024 Paris Olympics on July 28th (local time) at the Bercy Arena in Paris, France, the sounds of Korean boy group Stray Kids’ songs “S-Class,” “Maniac,” and “LALALALA” filled the venue. Performing her routine to these upbeat tracks was Mexican gymnast Alexa Moreno, 29. Although Moreno did not advance past the qualifiers, she shared her pride on X (formerly Twitter) by responding to a question about Stray Kids member Hyunjin, saying, “It’s truly an honor, and she was so beautiful.”
Moreno has previously expressed her love for K-pop after winning the gold medal in vault and bronze in floor exercise at the World Championships held in France last year. At the time, she publicly mentioned on X, “I’m so happy to have won a medal, but I still haven’t received a greeting from Stray Kids.” She has also posted on social media several times about training while listening to K-pop, including Stray Kids. For Moreno, performing to Stray Kids’ music at this event was a dream come true.
As Korean culture spreads globally, seeing K-pop at the Olympics is no longer unusual. K-pop is often heard during training sessions that are not broadcast on TV. In this Paris Olympics, an Italian gymnast with a Korean tattoo also made headlines. Elisa Iorio, 21, from Italy, has a tattoo on her back that reads “Love Yourself” in Korean, along with BTS’s “Love Yourself” logo. Iorio has also posted BTS-related photos on her social media.
With taekwondo events starting on August 7th, we might see even more Korean influence. At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Spanish taekwondo athlete Adriana Cerezo Iglesias, who won silver in the women’s 49kg category, drew attention by wearing a black belt with the phrase “Train hard, dream big” mistakenly translated into “Train (vehicle) hard, dream big” via an online translator. After the event, the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Spain gifted Iglesias a black belt with the correct translation. Iglesias is also competing in this year’s Paris Olympics.