Instead, before a blow was struck, the referee awarded the match to Poe. Moments earlier he had been told that Esther Kim had forfeited, allowing Poe—who had dislocated her kneecap in a previous fight and could barely stand—to win the women's flyweight championship and make the Olympic team. Kim simply was unwilling to battle her hobbled best friend, even with her own dream so tantalizingly in reach. "If we clashed hard enough, her knee might have been permanently injured," says Kim. "It wasn't fair for me to go in there having two legs and her having only one. I felt like I would be robbing Kay." Her decision enabled those on hand to witness something more stirring than a fight between two top-level martial artists: They saw an act of selflessness all too rare in pro or amateur sports. "It was the gutsiest damn thing I ever saw," says Kay's father, Kenneth Lee Poe. "I'm still in awe of how it came about, and I'm so proud of both the girls."
No one was more deeply affected by Kim's sacrifice than her closest friend. "Never in a million years did I think something like this would happen," says Poe. "It's such a wonderful gift that she gave me, and I don't know if I could do the same thing. She really saved me." Now that an MRI has shown that Poe sustained no serious damage to her knee, she is the top medal contender for the U.S. in the women's Olympic flyweight division in taekwondo, which this year makes its debut as an Olympic medal sport. Kim, for one, feels sure her friend will do her proud in Sydney. "Kay has always fought with all her heart," she says. "I wasn't throwing my dreams away; I was handing them to Kay."
The two have shared an uncommon bond since a Halloween party more than 10 years ago. Kim's father, Jin, 48, a Korean-born martial arts instructor who ran his own school in Houston (her mother, Yong, owns a small sandwich shop), gave the party and invited Kay, one of his young students. "She was in this little ninja outfit," remembers Kim. "She came over and took my hand, and for the rest of the day I went everywhere with her." Adds Poe, whose parents, Kenneth and Linda, are both insurance agents in the Houston area: "I was uncomfortable at the party, so I just grabbed Esther's hand. And she never got rid of me."
The girls began training together in taekwondo, a Korean martial art that, unlike karate, emphasizes the feet more than the hands. In 1998, Poe won a gold medal at the World Cup Championships; Kim won gold . at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials this year. The Olympics, says Kim, "is something I've dreamed about my entire life. That was the whole purpose of me doing this sport."
At the May 20 trials she watched as Poe banged her knee against her opponent in her semifinal match, yet valiantly persevered and won the fight. Kim's father had to carry Poe to the holding area, where she writhed in pain while Kim comforted her. "I was crying, it hurt so bad," says Poe. "Esther said, 'What are you going to do?' I said, 'I'm going to fight.' But Kim took one look at her friend's knee—swollen to twice its normal size—and made her decision. "In my heart," she says, "it felt like the right thing to do." Kim and Poe squared off at the mat to make the forfeit official, as Kim's beaming father looked on. "I told Esther, 'You are a true champion, a champion of life,' he says. " 'You did this for a friend.' "
Kim, a sophomore at the University of Houston, now hopes to serve as a training partner for Poe, who just finished high school. Kim and her father will also be taking an all-expenses-paid trip to Sydney for the Games, courtesy of the International Olympic Committee. Whatever glory awaits her best friend there, she will be hard-pressed to match the grandeur of what made it possible. "This is something I'm never going to regret," says Kim. "Everyone thought it was impossible to have two winners. But we made it possible."
Alex Tresniowski
Gabrielle Cosgriff in Houston
- Contributors:
- Gabrielle Cosgriff.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
