Hong Un-jong (; born 9 March 1989) is a

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

artistic gymnast Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which designs the Code of Points and regulates ...

. She is the 2008 Olympic champion and 2014 World Champion on vault. She was the first North Korean female gymnast to win a medal at the Olympics.

Career

She was an individual event finalist on the

vault Vault may refer to: * Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards Architecture * Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space * Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored * Burial vault (enclosure ...

at the 2007 World Championships and the bronze medalist on the event at the 2006

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...

. Hong represented North Korea at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

in Beijing, where she won the gold medal in the women's vault competition. This was the first Olympic medal for a North Korean woman in

Olympic gymnastics Gymnastics events have been contested at every Summer Olympic Games since the birth of the modern Olympic movement at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. For 32 years, only men were allowed to compete. Beginning at the 1928 Summer Olympics in A ...

. Hong won the gold medal in vault at the

2013 Summer Universiade The 2013 Summer Universiade, officially known as the XXVII Summer Universiade (russian: XXVII Летняя Универсиада), was held in the city of Kazan, Russia, the most northerly city ever to host a Summer Universiade. Over 10,400 un ...

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...

(tied with Russian gymnast

Ksenia Afanasyeva Ksenia Dmitrievna Afanasyeva (russian: Ксения Дмитриевна Афанасьева; born 13 September 1991) is a retired Russian artistic gymnast who competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. She is the 2011 ...

) and is the bronze medalist on vault at the 2013 World Championships. The following year she won the vault final at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

. She performed the two most difficult vaults in the final. In 2015 Hong again represented North Korea at the

held in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. Though she retained her full difficulties and performed impressively, she failed to defend her title and won a silver medal instead. She was behind Russia's

Maria Paseka Maria Valeryevna Paseka (russian: Мария Валерьевна Пасека; born 19 July 1995) is a Russian artistic gymnast and member of the Russia women's national gymnastics team. During her decade-long career, she has primarily been succ ...

by 0.033 point. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she qualified second into vault finals behind Simone Biles. In the finals she performed a solid Cheng to start. For her second vault, she became the first female gymnast to ever attempt a triple twisting yurchenko vault; however she under rotated and sat down the vault, getting the vault devalued to an Amanar, and ultimately missed the podium.

Age controversy

Hong Un-jong is the sister of

Hong Su-jong Hong Su-jong (born 9 March 1986 or 1989 in Hamgyong, North Korea) is a North Korean artistic gymnast. She is the 2007 World silver medalist on the vault. She competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the all-around and in the team event. She ...

, with whom she shares a 9 March birthday. Hong Su-jong had three different birth dates listed for her (1985, 1986, or 1989) at various competitions. At the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

, she competed under the 1985 birth date, but the 1989 birth date would have meant that she was too young to compete. In November 2010 Hong Su-jong was permanently banned from all international competition as a consequence of providing inconsistent age information. North Korea was also banned from all international competition until October 2012 due to this incident, which most significantly included the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. Hong Un-jong has never been personally implicated in the age falsification, but the consequent country-wide ban meant that she could not defend her Olympic title on vault. In a video, Hong Un-jong appeared to admit that Hong Su-jong is her twin."Hong Un-jong admitting being twins with her sister at 1m40s"
Choson Sinbo If accurate, this would mean that Hong Su-jong was in fact born in 1989, confirming the age falsification.

Competitive history

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hong, Un-jong 1989 births Living people North Korean female artistic gymnasts Gymnasts at the 2008 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts of North Korea Olympic gold medalists for North Korea Olympic medalists in gymnastics Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Asian Games medalists in gymnastics Gymnasts at the 2006 Asian Games Gymnasts at the 2014 Asian Games People's Athletes North Korean twins Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships Asian Games silver medalists for North Korea Asian Games bronze medalists for North Korea Asian Games gold medalists for North Korea Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games Universiade medalists in gymnastics World champion gymnasts Universiade gold medalists for North Korea Universiade bronze medalists for North Korea Medalists at the 2009 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 2013 Summer Universiade 21st-century North Korean women