Kim Ji-yeon (

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...

: 김지연; or ; born 12 March 1988) is a South Korean left-handed

sabre A sabre ( French: �sabʁ or saber in American English) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such as th ...

fencer. Kim is a five-time team Asian champion and four-time individual Asian champion. A three-time Olympian, Kim is a 2021 team

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

bronze medalist and 2012 individual Olympic champion. Kim is the first South Korean woman to win an Olympic gold medal in fencing and the second South Korean to win any Olympic medal in fencing after

Nam Hyun-hee Nam Hyun-Hee (; or ; born 29 September 1981) is a South Korean foil fencer. She is left-handed. She won the silver medal at the Beijing Olympics after losing 6-5 to Valentina Vezzali in the final. She was also a team bronze medalist at the ...

's silver medal in individual women's foil at the

2008 Beijing Olympic Games 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 Nati ...

. She is also the second South Korean fencer to win an individual gold medal at the Olympic Games, after

Kim Young-ho Kim Young-ho (born April 9, 1971 in Nonsan, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea) is a South Korean foil fencer. At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, he won the gold medal in individual foil, defeating Ralf Bissdorf of Germany Germany,, of ...

's gold medal in individual men's foil at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

Biography

Kim began fencing at age 13 as a foil fencer, but converted to sabre in high school at age 16 in 2004. Although she first became a member of the South Korean national fencing team at the age of 18 in 2006, Kim was often overshadowed by fellow sabre fencers Kim Hye-lim, Lee Shin-mi and Kim Keum-hwa, omitted from the final national squad before becoming a fixture in the 2011 season. Kim began to garner international attention at the

2011 Summer Universiade The 2011 Summer Universiade ( zh, c=2011年夏季世界大学生运动会, p=Èr líng yī yī Nián xiàjì shìjiè dàxuéshēng yùndònghuì), the XXVI Summer Universiade ( zh, c=第二十六届夏季世界大学生运动会, p=Dì Èrshíl ...

where she won the bronze medal in the women's individual sabre fencing. In the semifinals, Kim lost to two-time European champion and eventual gold medalist

Olha Kharlan Olha Hennadiyivna Kharlan ( uk, Ольга Геннадіївна Харлан; born 4 September 1990) is a Ukrainian right-handed sabre fencer. Kharlan is a two-time team European champion, six-time individual European champion, two-time team ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

15-10. She accumulated another bronze medal in the women's team sabre as a member of Team South Korea. Kim finished the 2011 season as her first full-time member of the national team, and her FIE ranking rose from 174 to 11. In February 2012, Kim reached the semifinals at the

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and Antalya Antalya () is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, fifth-most populous city in Turkey as well as the capital of Antalya Province. Located on Anatolia's southwest coast bordered by the Taurus Mountains, Antalya is the largest Turkish cit ...

World Cup in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. In May 2012, Kim became a semi-finalist at the

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

World Cup in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and the

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

Grand Prix in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in a row. Her success in these tournaments increased her FIE ranking to 5th before the start of the 2012 Olympics.

2012 Olympics

Kim competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London capturing the gold medal in the women's individual sabre event. This was South Korea's second Olympic gold medal in fencing,

having won the men's foil Gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Kim reached the final when she defeated two-time Olympic individual sabre champion

Mariel Zagunis Mariel Leigh Zagunis (born March 3, 1985) is an American sabre fencer. She is a two-time Olympic champion in the individual sabre ( 2004 and 2008) and the first American to win a gold medal in Olympic fencing. She was Team USA flag bearer in t ...

15–13 in the semifinal match. Largely regarded as the underdog by both competitors and her teammates, she came back from a 12–5 deficit against Zagunis to advance into the finals. Kim beat Russia's

Sofya Velikaya Sofiya Aleksandrovna Velikaya ( rus, Софья Александровна Великая, , ˈsofʲjə vʲɪˈlʲikəjə; born 8 June 1985) is a Russian sabre fencer. Velikaya is a former European champion (four-time individual, six-time t ...

, the reigning world champion, 15–9 in the gold medal match. Kim asserted her dominance early in the contest, with her opponent having little say in the outcome of the first period with an 8–5 triumph for Kim. Velikaya struggled to recover from the setback and the second period followed in much the same way as the first as Kim won 7–4 to win the gold medal.

Medal Record

Olympic Games

World Championship

Asian Championship

Grand Prix

World Cup

References

External links

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Kim Ji-yeon
at

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

Kim Ji-yeon
at

NBC Olympics The broadcasts of ''Summer'' and ''Winter Olympic Games'' produced by ''NBC Sports'' are shown on the various platforms of NBCUniversal in the United States, including the NBC broadcast network, NBC Sports app, NBCOlympics.com, Peacock, Spanish l ...