By Dirk Godder Apr 3, 2006, 17:37 GMT
Seoul - US football star Hines Ward, who won the most valuable player award at this year's Super Bowl, received a sports hero's welcome on Monday in his country of birth South Korea.
The 30-year-old player of the Pittsburgh Steelers was accompanied by his mother, Kim Young Hee, when he arrived amid much media attention at Inchon International Airport, near Seoul.
'I'm glad to be here,' said Ward to a group of about 100 waiting reporters, cameramen and photographers.
It is Ward's first visit in the country that he left three decades ago as a one-year toddler. He was born in Seoul to an African-American father who served in the US army and a Korean mother.
After his team won the final of the National Football League (NFL) Ward became an instant sports hero in his country of birth.
His sudden rise to stardom in the U.S. also turned the spotlight to the life of bi-national children in South Korea, a country that is proud of its longtime ethnic homogeneity.
Prior to his visit, Ward said he wanted to see the country where his mother grew up, and that the trip was long planned even before the Super Bowl.
The story of Ward and his mother, who struggled to raise him up as a single mother in the United States, has drawn much attention to the South Koreans. Kim and her husband split up shortly after they arrived in the US.
During his 10-day stay in the country, Ward will meet South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun and receive an honorary citizenship from Seoul City.
In a meeting organized by Pearl S. Buck International Korea, a welfare organization helping mixed-race children, the football star will also meet children of parents with different cultural backgrounds.
He hopes that the meeting with Ward will encourage the children, who often fall victim to racial discrimination in South Korea, said the organization's country director Yi Kyung Kyun.
'We want to tell the children that if you work hard you can achieve everything,' he said.
Before coming to Korea, Ward said that he doesn't try to be a role model.
'I think my story is just a great story and is inspiring to other people, for mixed kids,' he said at a press conference, of which a transcript was distributed by Ward's club.
'They have been through that and all the trials and tribulations that I had to overcome and to see me here right now living my dream, and winning the Super Bowl, it does give some people hope,' Ward said.
Your Talkback on this Story