Late climber Kim Hong-bin inducted into S. Korean Sports Hall of Fame

 The late South Korean mountaineer Kim Hong-bin was inducted into the country’s Sports Hall of Fame on Wednesday, five months after he went missing following a record-setting climb of an eight-thousander in the Himalayas.

The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) posthumously honored Kim as its “Sports Hero” for 2021 in a ceremony held at Olympic Park in Seoul.

Bang Young-eun (R), the wife of late South Korean mountaineer Kim Hong-bin, receives a plaque on behalf of her husband during Kim’s South Korean Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony at Olympic Park in Seoul on Dec. 22, 2021. (Yonhap)

The KSOC had given him the annual honor on Dec. 8, based on online poll results and its own assessment of the candidates’ careers.

Kim edged out three candidates: four-time Olympic archery gold medalist Kim Soo-nyung, the Vietnamese men’s national football head coach Park Hang-seo and the late South Korean men’s football star Yoo Sang-chul.

Kim Hong-bin, who had lost all of his fingers to frostbite three decades ago, reached the top of the 8,047-meter-high Broad Peak located in the Karakoram Range on the Pakistani-Chinese border in July. He became the first disabled person to scale all 14 of the world’s highest mountains, collectively called eight-thousanders.

But Kim, then 56, went missing at a location about 7,900 meters above sea level during his descent. Rescuers halted their weeklong search for Kim at the request of his family.

At his funeral in August, Kim was posthumously awarded the Cheongryong Medal, the highest Order of Sport Merit.

The KSOC opened its Hall of Fame in 2011 and has so far inducted 14 athletes and administrators. Hall of Famers include 1936 Olympic marathon gold medalist Sohn Kee-chung, the 2010 Olympic figure skating champion Kim Yu-na and football legend Cha Bum-kun.