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Kim Kum Yong
North Korean table tennis player (born 2001) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Kim Kum Yong (Korean: 김금영; born 17 August 2001) is a North Korean table tennis player. She qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics and won a silver medal in the mixed doubles tournament alongside Ri Jong Sik.[1] She is ranked 45th in the world by the International Table Tennis Federation (as of 15 July 2025[update]),[2] and is the defending Women's Singles Asian Champion.[3]
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Early international career (2018–2019)
Kim was born on 17 August 2001 in Pyongyang, North Korea.[4] She is left-handed and uses the shakehand grip in table tennis.[5]
She participated in her first two international competitions at the DPR Korea Open in 2018 and the Pyongyang Open in 2019.[6] She played at the 2019 Asian Junior and Cadet Table Tennis Championships and won the silver medal in the girls' team event. Later that year, she competed in the World Junior Table Tennis Championships, reaching the semifinals in the girls' singles and girls' teams events.[7][8]
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Return to international competition and Olympic debut (2023–2024)
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Starting in 2020, North Korean players stopped competing internationally for three years, returning for the 2022 Asian Games (held in 2023), where Kim competed in four events but did not win a medal.[6][9] In April 2024, Kim and her mixed doubles partner Ri Jong Sik qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics by defeating Spain in the ITTF World Olympic Qualification Tournament, 4–3.[10]
Kim and Ri, unranked by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) due to their limited experience in international competitions, were the last-ranked team in the Olympic mixed doubles competition and faced defending champion Japan – ranked second globally – in the opening round.[11][12] In a major upset, the North Korean pair defeated Japan by a score of 4–1.[11][13] The pair followed it up by defeating eighth-seeded Sweden and then fourth-seeded Hong Kong to reach the tournament finals against China.[12][14] They were defeated in the finals, 4–2, and thus received the silver medal, becoming the first Olympic medal–winners from North Korea in eight years.[15][16] After the tournament, the pair, having previously avoided the media, briefly answered questions at a press conference, with Kim noting: "We prepared a lot for the Olympics. We had a good performance but there are some regrets. We'll do better next time to win the gold."[1]
Kim is noted for using a rare type of table tennis racket, featuring long pimpled rubber on the backside, which Reuters stated "caught many top players off guard" at the Olympics.[1] Swedish player Kristian Karlsson noted: "Her serve gave me a lot of trouble. Some of them looked easy, but I missed them. The rubber she uses is very unusual among female players and almost nonexistent among male players."[1]
Following their silver medal, Kim and Ri shared a selfie on the podium with their fellow medalists, including Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin of South Korea. This was celebrated around the world as a moment of great sportsmanship, but reportedly led to criticism from the North Korean authorities, who according to Daily NK placed Kim and Ri under "ideological scrutiny" upon their return to the country.[17]
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Success after the Olympics (2024–present)
Kim saw further success in 2024 at that year's Asian Table Tennis Championships. She won silver with Ri once again in the mixed doubles event and defeated Japan's Miwa Harimoto in the finals of the women's singles event to earn her first gold medal and become the Women's Singles Asian Champion.[3][6] The following year she competed in the same events at the 2025 World Table Tennis Championships, again partnering with Ri, but she did not reach the knockout stage of either event.[6][18]
References
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