Won gold at last year's Asian Championships and bronze at the World Championships
A medal favorite at the Paris 2024 Olympics, artistic gymnastics star Yeo Seo-jung (Jecheon City Hall) is working her way to the top.
Yeo is the poster child for South Korean artistic gymnastics. She won the women's vault gold medal at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games and became the first South Korean female gymnast to win an Olympic medal (bronze) at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
Yeo continued to soar last year. She won gold at the Asian Championships in Singapore in June and bronze at the World Championships in Belgium in October. She became the first Korean female artistic gymnast to win a medal at a world championship.
In recognition of her achievements over the past year, Yeo was awarded the Excellence Award at the 34th Yoon Gok Kimyung Korean Women's Sports Awards ceremony held on June 6.
Speaking at the ceremony, Yeo said, “I think I did well because I trained hard in the athletes' village. Last year, the World Championships and Asian Games overlapped. I chose to compete in the World Championships because my goal was to go to the Paris Olympics, and I was happy that I performed well.”
Yeo's fellow national teammates Ahn Se-young (badminton), Shin Yubin (table tennis) and Hwang Sun-woo (swimming) won gold medals at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games. Yeo missed the Asian Games because she was competing at the World Championships, where Olympic qualification was at stake, but their performances were inspiring.
“It's motivating to see the athletes I knew at the Tokyo Olympics doing well. We are all working hard together,” Yeo said.
Yeo's father is the “Emperor of Vaulting” Yeo Hong-cheol. Together, they are the first father and daughter medalists at the World Championships.
Yeo won a bronze medal at the 1994 World Championships in Brisbane, Australia, and a silver medal at the 1996 World Championships in San Juan, Puerto Rico. At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, she won a silver medal. Yeo and Seo also became the first father-daughter Olympic medalists from South Korea.
“When I was younger, my father's halo was a burden, but not anymore,” said Yeo, who added, “He rarely talks to me about sports, but he is always there to support me.”
This year, Yeo is focusing on the Paris Olympics in July. She's aiming higher than she did in Tokyo.
“I'm training hard now, and I'm in good shape. First, I will focus on preparing for the national team trials next month. After the selection, I will work hard to stay injury-free before the Olympics.” “I have big goals. I want to go even higher than I did in Tokyo,” she said.