Clasping the treasured broom she used to reach the Sochi Games, Shin Mi-sung smiles as she remembers the ridicule and embarrassment she has had to endure as part of South Korea’s Olympic curling team.

“I used to take the subway holding this broom in my hand and people would think I was a window cleaner or a street sweeper,” Shin told Reuters.

At 35, the eldest of Korea’s five-woman team headed to Sochi for the Feb. 7-23 Games, Shin recalls one moment when a dire lack of funding forced them to take extreme measures.

“Professional curlers don’t re-use the brush pads but we had to wash ours over and over again, until too much lint built up and made them completely unusable,” she said.

“One time at an international match, we saw our competitors throw away their brush pads after using them only once. So we picked them out of the trash when no one was watching, washed them and used them in the next game,” she said through fits of laughter.

“At that time we were just so happy to get virtually brand-new pads for free. I guess we couldn’t afford to feel embarrassed back then.”

However, the days when Shin and teammates Kim Ji-sun, Lee Seul-bee, Kim Un-chi and Um Min-ji have to go rifling through garbage for equipment are long gone. Finishing in the top four at the World Women’s Curling Championships in Canada in March last year not only gave Korea enough points for an Olympic berth, it also brought much-needed funding and, perhaps more importantly, recognition.

With Korea’s PyeongChang set to host the Winter Games in 2018, that support seems set to continue for years to come. Coach Chung Young-sup told Reuters that nothing was the same after that.

“Everything flipped upside down,” he said.

It was then that the governor of their home province decided to create a more professional curling set-up, providing more money, insurance and all the other perks enjoyed by government employees.

“When we returned, Gyeonggi Province Gov. Kim Moon-soo created a curling team and provided a vehicle, a house near the training center and all the expenses for overseas training.

“Not long after that, Korea’s biggest retail conglomerate Shinsegae pledged 10 billion won ($9.42 million) until 2018 for the development of Korean curling and launched the Shinsegae-Emart National Curling Competition, which started in early October.

“There’s been such a big change, the difference is tangible,” Chung chuckled. (Reuters)