The Most Famous

BADMINTON PLAYERS from South Korea

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This page contains a list of the greatest South Korean Badminton Players. The pantheon dataset contains 117 Badminton Players, 10 of which were born in South Korea. This makes South Korea the birth place of the 4th most number of Badminton Players behind Indonesia, and Denmark.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary South Korean Badminton Players of all time. This list of famous South Korean Badminton Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of South Korean Badminton Players.

Photo of Park Joo-bong

1. Park Joo-bong (b. 1964)

With an HPI of 41.21, Park Joo-bong is the most famous South Korean Badminton Player.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages on wikipedia.

Park Joo-bong (Korean: 박주봉; Hanja: 朴柱奉; born 5 December 1964) is a South Korean former badminton player who excelled from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s. He was a member of South Korean national team from 1981 to 1996. He won a gold medal in the men's doubles at the 1992 Olympics, three-times World mixed doubles champion, two-times World men's doubles champion, and a silver medal in the mixed doubles at the 1996 Olympics.

Photo of Bang Soo-hyun

2. Bang Soo-hyun (b. 1972)

With an HPI of 37.59, Bang Soo-hyun is the 2nd most famous South Korean Badminton Player.  Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Bang Soo-hyun (Korean: 방수현; Hanja: 方銖賢; born 13 September 1972) is a former badminton player from South Korea who was one of the world's leading women's singles players of the 1990s. She was a contemporary and rival of Indonesia's Susi Susanti and China's Ye Zhaoying. Noted for a style that combined impressive power and movement, she retired from competition after her victory in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, shortly before her 24th birthday. She was elected to the World Badminton Hall of Fame in 2019.

Photo of Hwang Hye-young

3. Hwang Hye-young (b. 1966)

With an HPI of 34.56, Hwang Hye-young is the 3rd most famous South Korean Badminton Player.  Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Hwang Hye-young (born 16 July 1966) is a former female badminton player from South Korea. She won the gold medal in women's doubles together with Chung So-young at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. She was also the Gold medallist in the 1988 Olympics in Women's singles category, when Badminton was an exhibition sport in Olympics. She defeated Han Aiping in 3 games 1–11, 11–8, 11–6.

Photo of Lee Yong-dae

4. Lee Yong-dae (b. 1988)

With an HPI of 34.27, Lee Yong-dae is the 4th most famous South Korean Badminton Player.  His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Lee Yong-dae (Korean: 이용대; Hanja: 李龍大; Korean pronunciation: [i.joŋ.dɛ̝]; born 11 September 1988) is a professional badminton player from South Korea who had been successful in both men's and mixed doubles. He reached world number 1 ranking with 4 different partners, Jung Jae-sung, Ko Sung-hyun and Yoo Yeon-seong in men's doubles, and Lee Hyo-jung in mixed doubles. He won a total of 43 Superseries titles, 37 in the men's doubles, the most of any doubles player in one discipline, and 6 in mixed doubles. He was ranked world number 1 in men's doubles for 117 consecutive weeks with his last partner, Yoo Yeon-seong. After winning the 2016 Korean Superseries with Yoo, Lee announced his retirement from international badminton. He made a comeback to the international stage at the end of 2017, and started a new partnership with Kim Gi-jung in 2018.

Photo of Jung Jae-sung

5. Jung Jae-sung (1982 - 2018)

With an HPI of 34.12, Jung Jae-sung is the 5th most famous South Korean Badminton Player.  His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Jung Jae-sung (also spelled Chung Jae-sung; Korean: 정재성; Hanja: 鄭在成; Korean pronunciation: [tɕʌŋ.dʑɛ̝.sʌŋ]; 25 August 1982 – 9 March 2018) was a South Korean professional badminton player who specialized in men's doubles. Together with his partner Lee Yong-dae, Jung spent forty weeks as World No. 1 in the men's doubles discipline between 2009 and 2012, winning eighteen BWF World Superseries tournaments and placing second at the BWF World Championships on two occasions in 2007 and 2009. He was a two-time winner of the All-England Open, gold medalist at the 2008 Badminton Asian Championships, and won the bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in the final tournament of his professional career.

Photo of Kim Dong-moon

6. Kim Dong-moon (b. 1975)

With an HPI of 33.93, Kim Dong-moon is the 6th most famous South Korean Badminton Player.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Kim Dong-moon (Korean: 김동문; Hanja: 金東文; born 22 September 1975) is a retired South Korean badminton player who won major titles between the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s (decade), and widely regarded as one of finest men's doubles and mixed doubles players in badminton history. Kim captured the world attention when he unexpectedly winning the gold medal in the mixed doubles event with Gil Young-ah at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. On his path to greatness, he won gold medals both in men's and mixed doubles at the 1999 World Championships. Kim and Ra Kyung-min, partnered up to become one of the strongest mixed doubles pairings of that time. They did not drop a single match from April to November in 2003. They won 10 straight victorious tournaments: 9 consecutive Grand Prix events and one World Championship title. Their excellent results in 2003 earned Kim and Ra the Eddie Choong Player of the Year award. He captured this award previously by himself in 2002. Despite their domination, the golden couple crashed in the second round against the Danish partnership of Jonas Rasmussen and Rikke Olsen at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Kim however redeemed himself with a gold medal in men's doubles with Ha Tae-kwon. After the 2004 Olympics, Kim retired from playing and married his former mixed doubles partner, Ra in 2005. Kim is currently the only South Korean player to have ever won Olympic gold in both the men's and mixed doubles events. He was inducted into the BWF Hall of Fame in 2009.

Photo of Chung So-young

7. Chung So-young (b. 1967)

With an HPI of 33.47, Chung So-young is the 7th most famous South Korean Badminton Player.  Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Chung So-young (Korean: 정소영; Hanja: 鄭素英; born 20 February 1967) is a former badminton player from South Korea. She was a gold medalist at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 in the women's doubles together with Hwang Hye-young, and was inducted into the Badminton Hall of Fame in 2003.

Photo of Kim Moon-soo

8. Kim Moon-soo (b. 1963)

With an HPI of 33.42, Kim Moon-soo is the 8th most famous South Korean Badminton Player.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Kim Moon-soo (born 29 December 1963) is a former badminton player from South Korea who excelled from the early 1980s through the early-1990s

Photo of Ha Tae-kwon

9. Ha Tae-kwon (b. 1975)

With an HPI of 31.38, Ha Tae-kwon is the 9th most famous South Korean Badminton Player.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Ha Tae-kwon (Korean: 하태권; Hanja: 河泰權; born 30 April 1975) is a badminton player from South Korea. Born in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, Ha started his career in badminton with the recommendation of Kim Dong-moon in elementary school. He made his international debut in 1992, and won his first Grand Prix title at the 1995 Canada Open. Ha three times competed in Olympic Games in 1996, 2000 and 2004, won a bronze medal in 2000 and a gold medal in 2004.

Photo of Lee Hyo-jung

10. Lee Hyo-jung (b. 1981)

With an HPI of 29.41, Lee Hyo-jung is the 10th most famous South Korean Badminton Player.  Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Lee Hyo-jung (Korean: 이효정; Hanja: 李孝貞; Korean pronunciation: [i.ɦjo.dʑʌŋ]; born 13 January 1981) is a South Korean former badminton player. She won the gold medal in badminton mixed doubles at the 2008 Summer Olympics with her partner, Lee Yong-dae. Lee Hyo-jung and Lee Yong-dae were unseeded, and in the finals they beat the top seeds and 2005 and 2007 world champions Lilyana Natsir and Nova Widianto of Indonesia, 21-11, 21-17. Lee Hyo-jung also won the silver medal in badminton women's doubles at the aforementioned Olympics with Lee Kyung-won; they were seeded fourth and lost to the second-seeded Chinese pair, Du Jing and Yu Yang. Lee became the first woman in Korean history to win gold medals at both the Olympics and the Asian Games. In the 2010 Asian Games, she partnered with Shin Baek-cheol instead of her usual partner, Lee Yong-dae. After winning the medal, she announced her retirement despite many pleas from her coaches and fans at home to continue playing until the London Olympics in 2012.

People

Pantheon has 15 people classified as South Korean badminton players born between 1963 and 1994. Of these 15, 14 (93.33%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living South Korean badminton players include Park Joo-bong, Bang Soo-hyun, and Hwang Hye-young. The most famous deceased South Korean badminton players include Jung Jae-sung. As of April 2024, 5 new South Korean badminton players have been added to Pantheon including Hwang Hye-young, Chung So-young, and Kim Moon-soo.

Living South Korean Badminton Players

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Deceased South Korean Badminton Players

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Newly Added South Korean Badminton Players (2024)

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