Hong Un-jong

This is a Korean name; the family name is Hong.
Hong Un-jong 홍은정
 Gymnast 
Full name Hong Un-jong
Country represented  North Korea
Born (1989-03-09) March 9, 1989
Hamgyong, North Korea
Height 1.55 m (5 ft 1 in)
Discipline Women's artistic gymnastics
Level Senior International
Club Pyongyang Sports Club
Head coach(es) Kim Chun-phil
Assistant coach(es) Choe Kyong-hui
Choreographer Kim Chun-phil
Hong Un-jong
Chosŏn'gŭl 홍은정
Revised Romanization Hong Eunjeong
McCune–Reischauer Hong Ŭnjŏng

Hong Un-jong (born March 9, 1989 in Hamgyong, North Korea) is a North Korean artistic gymnast. She is the 2008 Olympic champion and 2014 World Champion on Vault. She was the first North Korean female gymnast to win a medal at the Olympics.[1]

Career

She was an individual event finalist on the vault at the 2007 World Championships and the bronze medalist on the event at the 2006 Asian Games.

Hong represented North Korea at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where she won the gold medal in the women's vault competition. This was the first Olympic medal for a North Korean woman in Olympic gymnastics.[1]

Hong won the gold medal in vault at the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan (tied with Russian gymnast Ksenia Afanasyeva) and is the bronze medalist on vault at the 2013 World Championships.

The following year, 2014, she won the vault final at the World Championships. She performed the two most difficult vaults in the final.[2] In 2015, Hong again represented North Korea at the World Championships held in Glasgow, UK. Though she retained her full difficulties and performed impressively, she failed to defend her title and won a silver medal instead. She was behind Russia's Maria Paseka by 0.033 point.

Age controversy

Further information: Hong Su-jong age controversy

Hong Un-jong is the younger sister or possibly twin sister of Hong Su-jong. Hong Su-jong had three different birth dates listed for her (1985, 1986, or 1989) at various competitions.[3] At the 2004 Summer Olympics, she competed under the 1985 birth date, but the 1989 birth date would have meant that she was too young to compete.[4] In November 2010 Hong Su-jong was banned from all competition out of North Korea for inconsistent age information for two years. North Korea was also banned from all international competition until October 2012 due to this incident, and North Korea could not send any gymnasts to the 2012 Summer Olympics.[5]

Competitive history

Year Event Team AA VT UB BB FX
2005East Asian Games3rd
2006Asian Championships2nd 1st
Asian GamesDQ 3rd
2007
World Championships 4th
2008Maribor World Cup 1st4th
Olympic Games 1st
2009Summer UniversiadeDQ 1st3rd
World Championships 5th
2010Moscow World Cup 1st6th
2011 North Korea banned from international competition
2012
2013Summer Universiade 1st
World Championships 3rd
East Asian Games3rd 1st 7th6th
2014Osijek World Cup 8th
Asian Games2nd 1st
World Championships 1st

References

  1. 1 2 "North Korea Gymnastics". sports-reference. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  2. "Simone Biles denied third gold". ESPN. 11 October 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  3. Turner, Amanda (30 September 2010). "North Korean Gymnast's Age Under Dispute". International Gymnast Magazine. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  4. "One Woman, Three Birthdays". The New York Times. The Associated Press. 2 October 2010. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  5. "London 2012 Olympics: North Korean gymnasts suspended for age falsification". The Telegraph. 6 November 2010. Retrieved 20 June 2015.

External links

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