Ri Ho-jun (, born 1 December 1946) is a

sports shooter Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms (firearms and airguns, in forms such as ...

and Olympic Champion for

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 ...

. He won a gold medal in the

50 metre rifle prone 50 meter rifle prone (formerly known as one of four free rifle disciplines) is an International Shooting Sport Federation event consisting of 60 shots from the prone position with a .22 Long Rifle (5.6 mm) caliber rifle. The time limit is 7 ...

event at the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...

in Munich, the country's first ever Olympic gold. In August 1972 he was awarded the title of

Merited Master of Sport of the USSR Unified Sports Classification System of the USSR (russian: Единая Всесоюзная спортивная классификация) is a document which provided general Soviet physical education system requirements for both athletes an ...

. He also competed at the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phi ...

and the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

. Ri also taught shooting sports to North Korea's future leader,

Kim Jong-il Kim Jong-il (; ; ; born Yuri Irsenovich Kim;, 16 February 1941 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011. He led North Korea from the 1994 death of his father Kim ...

. Ri later became his closest bodyguard.

References

External links

* 1946 births Living people North Korean male sport shooters ISSF rifle shooters Olympic shooters of North Korea Olympic gold medalists for North Korea Shooters at the 1972 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 1976 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 1980 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in shooting Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics Asian Games medalists in shooting Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR Shooters at the 1974 Asian Games Shooters at the 1978 Asian Games People's Athletes Asian Games gold medalists for North Korea Asian Games silver medalists for North Korea Medalists at the 1974 Asian Games Medalists at the 1978 Asian Games Bodyguards {{NorthKorea-sportshooting-bio-stub