Lim O-Kyeong (; born December 11, 1971), also spelled as Im Oh-Gyeong, is a South Korean politician who previously competed in three Olympics as a

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

player.Profile: "O-Kyeong Lim"
– ''databaseOlympics.com'' (Retrieved on December 23, 2007)

Sports and Education

At the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, she was part of the South Korea national team which won the gold medal. She played all five matches and scored 30 goals. In 1994 she moved 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 ...

to play for the Hiroshima Maple Reds. In 1996 she became a

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

and led her team to a

Japan Handball League The (JHL), is the top professional handball league in Japan. Team names and home cities/towns are from the official site for the 46th Japan Handball League (2021/2022 Season). 2021/2022 JHL Men's Teams 2021/2022 JHL Women's Teams Reference ...

championship. At the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, she won the silver medal as member of the South Korean team. She played all five matches and scored 41 goals. Lim was voted World Handball Player of the Year 1996Previous World Handball Players
'' (Retrieved on December 14, 2007)"World Handball Players"
�� ''worldhandball'' (Retrieved on December 23, 2007) by the

International Handball Federation The International Handball Federation (IHF) is the administrative and controlling body for handball and beach handball. IHF is responsible for the organisation of handball's major international tournaments, notably the IHF World Men's Handball C ...

. In 2004, she won the silver medal again at the Athens Olympics. At the competition she played all seven matches and scored 14 goals. In July 2008 she was hired as Seoul City Hall Handball Club's

becoming the first woman to coach a professional

Ball game This is a list of ball games and ball sports that include a ball as a key element in the activity, usually for scoring points. Ball games Ball sports fall within many sport categories, some sports within multiple categories, including: *Bat-and- ...

team in South Korea. She completed her tertiary education at

Korea National Sport University Korea National Sport University (KNSU) is a South Korean national university located in the neighborhood of Bangi-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul. It is the only national sport university of South Korea and offers degrees from undergraduate to doctoral lev ...

in Seoul for undergraduate, master's and doctorate degrees.

Politics

She previously served as a board member of the

Korean Sport & Olympic Committee The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (, Abbr.: KOC) is the National Olympic Committee of Republic of Korea (competing as Korea) for the Olympic Games movement and inbound sports issue. It is a non-profit organization that selects players and ...

and as a non-executive director of the government-funded Korea Sports Promotion Foundation. In preparation for the 2020 general election, she was approached and recruited by the ruling

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

. She stated that her decision to join the political party was inspired by President

Moon Jae-in Moon Jae-in (; ; born 24 January 1953) is a South Korean former politician, civil servant and lawyer who served as the 12th president of South Korea between 2017 and 2022. Prior to his presidency, he served as Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs an ...

Electoral history

Awards

ROK_Order_of_Sports_Merit_Cheongnyong_(1st_Class)_ribbon

Order of Sports Merit by the government of South Korea (1992)

References

External links

* 1971 births Living people South Korean female handball players Olympic handball players for South Korea Handball players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Handball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Handball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for South Korea Olympic silver medalists for South Korea Olympic medalists in handball Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics People from Jeongeup Minjoo Party of Korea politicians 21st-century South Korean women politicians 21st-century South Korean politicians 21st-century South Korean women Members of the National Assembly (South Korea) Female members of the National Assembly (South Korea) Sportsperson-politicians {{SouthKorea-handball-bio-stub