‘Physical 100’: Kim Min-cheol and Park Jin-yong Thought Netflix Casting Was a Scam
The contestants of Netflix‘s Physical 100 come from various athletic backgrounds. Many are national athletes. Fans met female bodybuilder Kim Chun-ri, fitness celebrity Kim Kang-mi and his wife, and MMA fighter Choo Sung-hoon. When gathering the 100 contestants for Physical 100, Kim Min-cheol and Park Jin-yong admitted they thought it was “fraud.”
‘Physical 100’ contestants Min-cheol and Jin-yon were part of the finalists in the competition series
Before the series, some of the contestants of Physical 100 were nobodies to fans. While the group included athletes who made a name for themselves on social media and Youtube, some fans might not have met the other national athletes before. Choo Sung-hoon is a well-recognized MMA fighter and celebrity, appearing on multiple Korean variety shows. Meanwhile, Olympian Yun Sung-bin is recognized for his immense predator-like body and career as a skeleton racer who won gold. Fans also recognized Physical 100’s Agent H, the Youtuber and UDT soldier.
Most contestants are national athletes representing South Korea on the path to or in the Olympics. Kim Min-cheol was the underdog of Physical 100. He won the pre-elimination challenge and won every quest until the finale. Not only is Min-cheol a mountain rescuer who puts his life on the line, but he is also a national ice climbing athlete. During the finale, he admitted he joined Physical 100 to bring awareness to his profession and sport.
Park Jin-yong also reached the finale with Min-cheol. He is a national luge athlete, alongside Physical 100 contestant Cho Jung-myung as his teammate. Before the final quest to find the winner, Jin-yong admitted that Olympic athletes who are not popular are often forgotten. Like his competitors, he wanted to bring interest to the sport for future athletes. But when it came to joining Physical 100, Min-cheol and Jin-yong comically admitted they thought the casting was not real.
Jin-yong thought someone wanted to commit fraud on an Olympic athlete
Many of the series’ contestants were asked to join through DMs, messages, or official offers. Physical 100’s Miracle Nelson explained he sent out comp cards as a model and later received an offer to join. In an interview with W Korea, some of the contestants of Physical 100 talked about their experiences and how they joined.
In only five syllables, they were asked their first thoughts when receiving the casting call from Netflix. Min-cheol cheekily answered, “Is this fraud?” But Min-cheol was not the only one as Jin-yong also thought the Physical 100 call was a scam or someone trying to commit fraud.
“Luge isn’t much of a popular sport. We don’t have a lot that knows it. But when I received the casting call, I thought it was fraud. ‘They’re going to commit fraud on me now that I went on the Olympics.’ That’s what I thought. But they gave me a number. When I called that number, I realized it was really Netflix,” explained Jin-yong.
Jin-yong was not the only one flustered by receiving the casting call, as many others felt like it was possibly a mistake. Wrestler Park Min-ji received the message from another teammate since her social media was private. She asked her teammate “multiple times to check” and wondered why her. “‘How did they know of me?’ I kept asking,” said Min-ji.
Woo Jin-yong received the ‘Physical 100’ casting call at his CrossFit gym
While Min-chae and Jin-yong thought the Physical 100 call was a scam, their co-stars saw it as an opportunity. Physical 100 winner Woo Jin-yong revealed he got a call. Shim Ee-ddeum wondered who leaked his private number. But Jin-yong explained, “No, they called my gym number open for inquiries. So I took the call thinking it was an inquiry, but they said it was from Netflix.
Jin-yong is a former national athlete who now owns a CrossFit gym. “So, I was planning on opening a second division of my gym,” he said, and Ee-ddeum commented joining the series would help with PR, and he agreed that was his reasoning. Meanwhile, Jo Jin-hyeong got a DM on Instagram but bashfully admits he did not read it until three days later.
Having starred in another competition series where Jin-hyeong won Strongman, but Coronavirus (COVID-19) hit, he saw Physical 100 as an opportunity. Ee-ddeum thought the same and felt she would be good at it.
