Chang Hye-jin
Two-time Olympic gold medalist and former world number one.
Chang Hye-jin (born 13 May 1987) is a South Korean former recurve archer. She won two gold medals at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, one in the women’s individual event and another in the women’s team event. Between 2017 and 2019, she held the top spot in the World Archery Rankings.
Chang first picked up a bow at age eleven and entered her first national tournament two years later. She won her first competition during her second year of high school in Daegu. After studying at Keimyung University, she joined the LH team based in Seoul to shoot professionally, and remained a member of that team as of August 2018.
She made her international debut in 2008 at the World University Games in Chinese Taipei. The next year, at the Summer Universiade in Belgrade, she won a gold medal in the women’s team recurve event. She qualified for the senior South Korean national team in 2010, but in 2012 she finished fourth in the national team trials, missing out on a spot for the London Olympics by one place.
At her first World Archery Championships in 2013, Chang won the women’s team recurve title alongside Ki Bo-bae and Yun Ok-hee after a low-scoring final against Belarus. At the 2014 Asian Games, she reached the gold medal match in both the women’s team and individual events. With teammates Jung Dasomi and Lee Tuk-young, she secured South Korea’s fifth consecutive women’s team title by beating China comfortably. In the individual final, she lost to Jung by seven set points to three.
In spring 2016, Chang qualified for the South Korean Olympic team on her second attempt, joining reigning Olympic champion Ki Bo-bae and world number one Choi Mi-sun for the Rio Games. The trio were expected to win the nation’s eighth straight Olympic gold in the team event, but pre-tournament predictions favored Choi and Ki for the individual crown, with Reuters calling Chang the “least-fancied” of the three.
In the ranking round, Chang placed second with 666 points out of 720, earning the number two seed. Choi and Ki finished first and third, giving the team a combined score of 1,998 points and the top seed. In the team competition, held before the individual event, Chang, Choi, and Ki beat the second-seeded Russian team to extend South Korea’s undefeated streak and win their eighth consecutive Olympic title.
Quick Facts
- Header Color
- lightsteelblue
- Nationality
- South Korean
- Birth Date
- 13 May 1987
- Birth Place
- Daegu, South Korea
- Height
- 158 cm
- Weight
- 50 kg
- Education
- Keimyung University
- Sport
- Archery
- Event
- Recurve archery
- Club
- LH
- Highest Ranking
- No. 1 (26 June 2017)
- Show Medals
- yes
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Chang Hye-jin was introduced to archery at age eleven and participated in her first national tournament two years later. She won her first tournament during her second year of high school in Daegu, studied at Keimyung University, and later joined the Seoul-based LH team to shoot professionally. She made her international debut in 2008 at the World University Games and first qualified for the senior South Korean national team in 2010. In 2012 she narrowly missed Olympic selection, placing fourth in the national team trials. She won her first World Archery Championships women's team title in 2013 with Ki Bo-bae and Yun Ok-hee, and at the 2014 Asian Games she won gold in the women's team event and silver in the individual event.
At the 2016 Olympics, Chang entered as the least-fancied of the three Korean women but won gold in both the team and individual events, becoming the eighth South Korean women's individual Olympic champion. She became world number one in June 2017 and won medals at the 2017 World Cup final and World Championships, where she was individual runner-up. In 2018 she delivered a notable performance in the first stage of the Archery World Cup, placing three arrows within 3 cm of one another at 70 m. She retired from competitive archery in August 2022.
Reader's Guide
Chang Hye-jin's career is notable for her two Olympic gold medals at the 2016 Summer Olympics, where she won both the women's individual and team events. Her individual victory made her the eighth South Korean to win the women's Olympic individual archery title and marked South Korea's twenty-second Olympic gold medal in archery, surpassing short track speed skating as the nation's most successful Olympic sport. She was named top female athlete at the 2016 Korea Woman Sports Awards. Chang also held the world number one ranking from 2017 to 2019, and her precise shooting in 2018—placing three arrows within 3 cm of one another at 70 m—was lauded as one of the finest achievements in modern recurve competition. Despite later struggles with form and Olympic qualification, she maintained her position as world number one at the end of 2018 and contributed to multiple team gold medals at the World Championships, Asian Games, and World Cup finals.
Did You Know?
- At the 2016 Olympics, she was described as the 'least-fancied' of the three Korean women but won both individual and team gold.
- In 2018, she placed three arrows within 3 cm of one another at 70 m in a World Cup final.
More in Olympic Archers 1-24
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