Hong Un-jong

Hong Un-jong (Korean: 홍은정; Hanja: 洪恩情; born 9 March 1989) 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.[2]

Hong Un-jong
Full name	Hong Un-jong
Country represented	North Korea
Born	9 March 1989 Hamgyong, North Korea[1]
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
Medal record Representing  North Korea Olympic Games 2008 Beijing Vault World Championships 2014 Nanning Vault 2015 Glasgow Vault 2013 Antwerp Vault Asian Games 2014 Incheon Vault 2014 Incheon Team 2006 Doha Vault Summer Universiade 2009 Belgrade Vault 2013 Kazan Vault 2009 Belgrade Uneven bars Asian Championships 2006 Surat Vault 2012 Putian Vault 2012 Putian Team East Asian Games 2013 Tianjin Vault 2013 Tianjin Team

Hong Un-jong
Chosŏn'gŭl	홍은정
Hancha	洪恩情
Revised Romanization	Hong Eunjeong
McCune–Reischauer	Hong Ŭnjŏng

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.[2]

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 she won the vault final at the World Championships. She performed the two most difficult vaults in the final.[3] In 2015 Hong again represented North Korea at the World Championships held in Glasgow. 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. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she qualified second into vault finals behind Simone Biles. In the finals she performed a solid Cheng to start. For her second vault, she became the first female gymnast to ever attempt a triple twisting yurchenko vault; however she under rotated and sat down the vault, getting the vault devalued to an Amanar, and ultimately missed the podium.

Age controversy

Hong Un-jong is the sister of Hong Su-jong, with whom she shares a 9 March birthday. Hong Su-jong had three different birth dates listed for her (1985, 1986, or 1989) at various competitions.[4] 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.[5] In November 2010 Hong Su-jong was permanently banned from all international competition as a consequence of providing inconsistent age information. North Korea was also banned from all international competition until October 2012 due to this incident, which most significantly included the 2012 Summer Olympics.[6] Hong Un-jong has never been personally implicated in the age falsification, but the consequent country-wide ban meant that she could not defend her Olympic title on vault.

In a video, Hong Un-jong appeared to admit that Hong Su-jong is her twin.[7] If accurate, this would mean that Hong Su-jong was in fact born in 1989, confirming the age falsification.

Competitive history

Year	Event	Team	AA	VT	UB	BB	FX
2005	East Asian Games	3rd
2006	Asian Championships	2nd		1st
	Asian Games	DQ		3rd
2007
	World Championships			4th
2008	Maribor World Cup			1st	4th
	Olympic Games			1st
2009	Summer Universiade	DQ		1st	3rd
	World Championships	N/A		5th
2010	Moscow World Cup			1st	6th
2011	North Korea banned from international competition
2012
2013	Summer Universiade			1st
	World Championships	N/A		3rd
	East Asian Games	3rd		1st		7th	6th
2014	Osijek World Cup			8th
	Asian Games	2nd		1st
	World Championships			1st
2015
	World Championships			2nd
2016
	Olympic Games			6th

References

1. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Hong Un-Jong". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 1 July 2015. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
2. "North Korea Gymnastics". sports-reference. Archived from the original on 20 June 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
3. "Simone Biles denied third gold". ESPN. 11 October 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
4. Turner, Amanda (30 September 2010). "North Korean Gymnast's Age Under Dispute". International Gymnast Magazine. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
5. "One Woman, Three Birthdays". The New York Times. The Associated Press. 2 October 2010. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
6. "London 2012 Olympics: North Korean gymnasts suspended for age falsification". The Telegraph. 6 November 2010. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
7. "Hong Un-jong admitting being twins with her sister at 1m40s" Choson Sinbo

External links

• HONG Un Jong at the International Gymnastics Federation
• Un Jong HONG at the International Olympic Committee
• Hong UnJong at databaseOlympics.com (archived)
• Hong Un-Jong at Olympedia