Kim Min-jung, nicknamed "MJ" is a South Korean curler. She was one of the coaches of the South Korean Women's Olympic Curling Team in 2018, skipped by Kim Eun-jung. After the Olympics, Team Kim accused Min-jung and her father Kim Kyung-doo (who was also the countries sports federation vice president) of abusing the team. She is no longer the coach of the team.

Career

Kim was the alternate at first for the Kim Eun-jung team. They represented South Korea at the

2012 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships The 2012 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships were held from November 18 to 25 at the Naseby Curling Club in Naseby, New Zealand. The championships acted as the Pacific zone qualifiers for the World Curling Championships. The top two women's berths ...

where they finished in third place after losing the semifinal to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Satsuki Fujisawa is a Japanese curler from Kitami, Hokkaido. As a skip, she has won the Japanese national championship six times. Fujisawa skipped the bronze medal-winning Japanese team at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games and the silver medal-winning team at the ...

, and therefore failed to qualify for the world championships. Team Kim captured the national championship again in April 2014. At the

2014 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships The 2014 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships were held from November 8 to 15 at the Karuizawa Ice Park in Karuizawa, Japan. The top two finishers in the men's tournament, Japan and China, earned berths to the 2015 Ford World Men's Curling Champio ...

, they had an unbeaten 8-0 round-robin record and a semifinal win over New Zealand. However, in the final, they lost against China's

Liu Sijia Liu Sijia (; born July 20, 1988) is a Chinese curler from Harbin. She skipped the Chinese National Women's Curling Team at both the and World Women's Curling Championships. Career As a junior curler Liu won a gold medal at the 2010 Pacific ...

on an extra-end steal, narrowly missing a berth to the world championships. In April 2016, Team Kim claimed their third national championship by beating in the final a high school curling team skipped by Kim Min-ji, which had earned bronze at the world junior championships the previous month. Kim Min-jung was moved to the coach of the team as

Kim Cho-hi Kim Cho-hi, nicknamed Chocho (born September 7, 1996) is a South Korean curler from Uijeongbu. She was the alternate, but now plays second for Team Kim Eun-jung. The Kim team represented South Korea at the 2018 Winter Olympics, where they won ...

came in as their new alternate. At the

2016 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships The 2016 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships were held from November 5 to 12 at the Gyeongbuk Uiseong Curling Training Center in Uiseong-eup, Uiseong County, South Korea. The top two teams from the men's tournament will qualify for the 2017 Ford W ...

, the South Korean team went through the round-robin with a 6–1 record and won the semifinal over New Zealand. Then in the final, they defeated China's

Wang Bingyu Wang Bingyu (; ; born October 7, 1984 in Harbin, Heilongjiang; usually referred to in the media as Bingyu "Betty" Wang) is a Chinese curler. In 2009, she became the first non Northern American or European skip to win a World Championship. Cu ...

to capture the Pacific-Asia title. Later that season, they represented South Korea at the

2017 World Women's Curling Championship The 2017 World Women's Curling Championship (branded as CPT World Women's Curling Championship 2017 for sponsorship reasons) was a curling event held between March 18–26 at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing, China. The winning Rachel Homan ...

where they finished in sixth with a 5–6 record. In May 2017, Team Kim defended their national title at the 2017 South Korean Curling Championships, which also served as trials for the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

, by winning the best-of-seven final over Kim Min-ji 4-1 after defeating

Gim Un-chi Gim Eun-ji also known as Gim Un-chi (born January 23, 1990) is a Korean curler from Gyeonggi-do. She currently skips the Gyeonggi Province curling team. Career Gim played as lead in her first world championship at the 2011 Capital One World ...

in the best-of-five semifinal 3–2. This qualified the team for the Olympics. Later that year Kim and her team won the gold medal at the

2017 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships The 2017 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships was held 2–8 November in Erina, New South Wales, Australia. The top three teams from the men's and women's tournaments qualified for the 2018 World Men's Curling Championship and 2018 Ford World Wome ...

. The 2018 Olympic curling team of skip Kim Eun-jung, vice Kim Kyeong-ae, second Kim Seon-yeong and lead

Kim Yeong-mi Kim Yeong-mi, nicknamed "Pancake" (born March 10, 1991) is a South Korean curler. She was the lead, but now is the alternate on Team Kim Eun-jung. The Kim team represented South Korea at the 2018 Winter Olympics, where they won a silver meda ...

, coached by Peter Gallant of Canada and herself, received celebrity status for their strong performances despite entering the tournament as underdogs. Korea topped the round robin standings with just one loss while defeating heavily favoured Canada and Sweden, and then advanced to the final where they lost to Sweden to claim the silver medal. The next month, the team then played in the

2018 World Women's Curling Championship The 2018 World Women's Curling Championship (branded as the 2018 Ford World Women's Curling Championship for sponsorship reasons) was held from March 17–25 at the North Bay Memorial Gardens in North Bay, Ontario, Canada. The format of the tourn ...

where they lost in the quarterfinals. Team Kim accused the coaching staff of their team (excluding Peter Gallant) of holding back prize money and verbally abusing them. This included trying to get

kicked off the team so Min-jung could be the teams alternate and have a chance to get a medal (as the coaches of the teams don't) and trying to exclude skip Kim Eun-jung from team practices after they learned she was planning on starting a family. Kim Min-jung was ejected from being the team's coach.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Min-jung Living people 1981 births Sportspeople from Daegu South Korean female curlers People from Uiseong County South Korean curling coaches Sportspeople from North Gyeongsang Province 20th-century South Korean women 21st-century South Korean women