KOREAN CELEBRITIES

   

    Hello everyone! 

 Korean Pop is very big and favored Music Industry, which is well-known as a unique Korean feature that makes Korean stars like an idols for the people and especially for youth. Korean celebrities from the popular K-pop songs, Korean dramas are getting more and more fans all around the world. Thousands of young people know majority of K-pop stars and follow their fashion, trends and so on, however not many people know about the Korean celebrities in different fields such as sports. So today I'm going to talk about the Korean Women Sports Celebrities. The first star in my list is Yuna Kim.

"Yuna Kim - is the first female skater to win the Olympic Games, the World Championships, the Four Continents Championships and the Grand Prix Final. She is one of the most highly recognized athletes and media figures in South Korea."[1]

  By the age of 24, Yuna Kim already has achieved the figure skating world records building remarkable reputation. "She is the 2010 Olympic champion and 2014 silver medalist in ladies' singles; the 2009, 2013 World champion; the 2009 Four Continents champion; a three-time (2006–2007, 2007–2008, 2009–2010) Grand Prix Final champion; the 2006 World Junior champion; the 2005 Junior Grand Prix Final champion; and a six-time (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2013, 2014) South Korean International champion."[2]

 The next sports star is the Jang Mi-ran, a female South Korean weightlifter. 

Jang Mi-ran

"She competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics, and won the silver medal in the over 75 kg competition, with a total of 302.5 kg. At the 2008 Summer Olympics she won the gold medal in the +75 kg category. She won the gold medal in over 75-kilogram division at 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. " [3]

           The was a breaking news named North Korean "Defector Girl Boxer" fights for the south. This title is about Choi Hyun-Mi, a "South Korean female boxerfighting in the Super featherweight division, and a World Boxing Association champion."[4] She is originally from North Korea, she escaped with her family and landed in South Korea, by what she got the nickname “Defector Girl Boxer.”

Choi Hyun-Mi

                The last star in my list is the Pak Se-ri, a South Korean professional golfer on the LPGA Tour. At just 20 years of age, she became the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Women's Open. About.com writes that "Pak won a 20-hole playoff for that victory, making that tournament - at 92 holes in length - the longest tournament ever in women's professional golf."[5] By the astounding achievements in Golf sports she became an inspiration for many women to start a career as a golfer. 

Pak Se-ri

       By the examples that i brought in this blog I wanted to demonstrate the Korean stars in different fields of sports. Each celebrity out of four is the professional in her area and has own unique characteristics. And I think even though they are not very popular like modern K-pop stars they are still the pride of South Korea. 

                                                    [1] : International Figure Skating Magazine. December 2007

[2] : wikipedia.org site.

[3] : International Weightlifting Federation.

[4] : New York Times.

[5] : About.com- Se-ri Park