This is the 9545th most frequent Korean word.
경쟁자였다
"Was a competitor."
Here, '경쟁자였다' is used to refer to a person who was a competitor in the past, focusing on the competition relationship.
그는 한때 나의 가장 큰 경쟁자였다.
He was once my biggest competitor.
The phrase '경쟁자였다' emphasizes the mutual competitiveness that existed between the subjects.
우리는 예전에 같은 시장에서 서로 경쟁자였다.
We used to be competitors in the same market.
In this context, '경쟁자였다' describes past competitive relationships in a political sense.