ENHYPEN’s Sunghoon Was In “Absolute Crisis” During The Lowest Point Of His Figure Skating Career—Here’s Why

ENHYPEN‘s Sunghoon may be focused on his singing career at present, but it wasn’t too long ago when he was a professional athlete instead. He quit the sport in February 2020 despite being a national representative after choosing to pursue his dreams of being a K-Pop idol.

Your browser does not support video.ENHYPEN’s Sunghoon 

Nevertheless, he still often looks back on his past life in interviews such as a recent one with Weverse Magazine. Besides touching on his beginnings in the sport and his thoughts on Olympic skater Cha Jun Hwan, he also talked about the hardest part of his skating career. This was the “downer” that he regrets when looking back—the time when he was an adolescent on the SBS documentary Crayons in My Mind (2014).

Generally speaking, I had a smooth time figure skating without much fluctuation, but I was in absolute crisis when I was on the SBS show Crayons in My Mind.

— Sunghoon

His mood swings and tense relationship with his parents were caught on camera. He was a 12-year old boy who had just come out of a skating hiatus, and his failures in jumps frustrated him to the point where he was emotional or even standoffish to his elders. Sunghoon later explained that he was “going through a slump and adolescence at the same time.”

Fighting with my parents a lot and getting angry and annoyed when I couldn’t do the moves I wanted…I realized that actually made me do worse.

— Sunghoon

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It was already difficult to return to an intense sport like figure skating but Sunghoon also had to deal with the pressures of being a prodigy whom people expected much from. His own expectations for himself, most of all, dragged him down.

Practically all I did every day was practice. I tried exercising with greater intensity, learning with a different trainer, pulling myself together, all in the hopes of quickly returning to peak physical form.

— Sunghoon

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Sunghoon Pre-Debut

It was a lot to bear for such a young child. Years later, Sunghoon realized that his life then was even busier in some ways than his life now.

Thinking about it now, I have no idea how I kept doing just one thing for so long like that. I think I was taking on more back then than I am now, even though I was younger.

— Sunghoon

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Sunghoon eventually got back on track and ended his career on his own terms prior to joining ENHYPEN. He is now an up-and-coming K-Pop idol who has a legion of fans supporting him!