As a Deerfield student, Yoo Kim ’99 was pole vault champion at New England’s three years in a row; now he is a three-time Olympian. Mr. Kim, who represents South Korea, competed in the qualifying round today, but was not among the 14 athletes who advanced to the final. A Korean national record holder in the pole vault, Mr. Kim has had a long athletic career, a passion that he discovered at Deerfield. Deerfield Magazine wrote about Mr. Kim in 1999: “As a senior, he’s still physically atwitch; a foot jiggles throughout an interview, the knees on the long legs are in a constant process of rearrangement. But during practice and competition, all that energy becomes harnessed in the service of his obsession, pole vaulting . . . There is talk that he will jump for the Korean Olympic team.”
