If you like to cheer for underdogs, Physical 100‘s Kim Min-Cheol is your guy. Nobody expected this dorky ice-climber to come out of nowhere to have a chance at winning it all. He’s beaten reservists, gymnasts, and outlasted bigger and tougher opponents by punching above his weight. He’s a real-life Peter Parker who aced the pre-challenge and destroyed other competitors to win the Wings of Icarus rope challenge in Quest 4. He also served under Choo Sung-Hoon’s leadership through the team challenges. This combination of skill and luck has secured him a place in the final five.
Unless the intimidating Yun Sung-Bin can secure first place in the Punishment of Sisyphus challenge, the finalists will all be low-profile. Maybe we’ll have an Avengers-style showdown as Iron Man Sung-Bin takes on Spider-Man? It’ll make for an exciting final episode, but right now, let’s learn more about the unlikely contender Kim Min-cheol.
Physical 100‘s Kim Min-Cheol: An Ice Climber Who Won’t Wobble
Kim Min-cheol competing in an ice-climbing competition (Instagram).
Ice climbers aren’t just a controversial choice in Smash Brothers. Mountain rescuer Kim Min-cheol rescues people from mountaintops, such as the 800+ meter-high (2,500+ feet) Mount Bukhan, near Seoul. According to this article, the team he is part of is like an ambulance crew for injured mountain climbers, and are just as fast. He’s also capable of hauling 10-15 kg packs to extreme heights. He’s an avid runner, hockey player, and can scale a rock-climbing wall with ease. But his specialty is “dry tooling”, where you scale a rock face using sharp ice axes. He’s part of the national ice-climbing team, and has been winning national competitions since 2018. Additionally, he has had top-10 finishes in international competitions.
In the show’s finale episode 9, Kim Min-cheol lets other competitors know he joined the show to raise the profile of mountain rescue and ice climbing. He said the mountain rescue team are used when the weather isn’t good enough to use a helicopter.
Physical 100 Finalist Kim Min-cheol’s Instagram & Sponsors
Kim Min-cheol training with a long run (Instagram).
Being fans, we’ve regularly read far too much into IG comments and deleted posts by reality show contestants. Leave it to Kim Min-Cheol to take things a step farther, geeking out after finding the Physical 100 official subreddit. He’s more of a lurker than a poster, with only 8,800 followers on Instagram. But, he’s been able to secure sponsorships with Urban Packers and All For Gear. Climbing seems to be his sole obsession, with no family or romantic pics, no cast crossover pics, and very few of the requisite food pics favored by the rest of the Physical 100 cast. This is consistent with his quiet demeanor, as he doesn’t speak up much during team planning sessions on the show. However, his more recent posts show him to be an enthusiastic booster of the show. Will national exposure and a possible first place finish help him open up?
