Korea’s women's fencing will bloom with medals

Jisu Yoon (age 31), "I don't have any places I want to visit or things I want to eat in Paris."

Yoon Ji-su (31, pictured), a member of the Korean women's sabre fencing team competing in the Paris Olympics, expressed this sentiment, adding, "As long as I win a medal, I'll be happy just eating kimchi stew back in Korea." Although Yoon knows about the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, and the luxury shops lining the Champs-Élysées in Paris, her intense desire to win a medal at the Paris Olympics led her to make such a statement.

This Paris event marks Yoon Ji-su's third Olympic participation. She was the youngest of the national sabre team in both the 2016 Rio de Janeiro and the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Ji-yeon Kim (36), Korea's senior sabre player whom Yoon had been relying on as a mentor for her entire national player career, retired after she won the first bronze medal for female sabre team event in the Tokyo Olympics.

Yoon Ji-su became the captain of the sabre team last year. At her first international comprehensive event as captain, the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, she won a gold medal in the individual event and a bronze medal in the team event. The only Korean fencer to win medals in both individual and team events at a single Olympic Games is Kim Jung-hwan of the men's sabre team, who won a bronze medal in the individual event and a gold medal in the team event at the Tokyo Olympics.

Yoon mentioned that she often recalls the saying, "Each flower blooms in its own season," whenever she felt insecure. She said, "I've trained as a national representative for 12 years, and I want to trust the journey I've been through." She also has a mentor who has walked a lonely path carrying heavy burdens. Her father, Yoon Hak-gil, a former pitcher for the Lotte Giants known as the "Lonely Prince," is now a talent donation committee member of the Korea Baseball Organization.

Team Korea's national fencing team departs for the battlefield of Paris in July 20. The team event match for female sabre will take place on August 4, making it the last event for the South Korean fencing team at the Olympics.


Bo-Mi Im bom@donga.com