Her grandma asked her to renounce her Japanese citizenship and compete for Korea. Now she's an Olympic medalist.

Olympic Sports

Her grandma asked her to renounce her Japanese citizenship and compete for Korea. Now she's an Olympic medalist.

Published: 30 Jul. 2024, 02:11

PAIK JI-HWAN
paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr

Korean judoka Huh Mi-mi poses with her silver medal at the Paris Olympics at Champ-de-Mars Arena in Paris on Monday. [YONHAP]

Monday’s silver medal by judoka Huh Mi-mi in the women’s 57-kilogram final at the Paris Olympics was Korea’s first Olympic medal won by a female judoka since 2016 and the ultimate prize as Huh fulfilled her grandmother’s dream to see her representing Korea at the Olympics.

Huh is a naturalized Korean athlete originally from Japan. She was born in 2001 in Tokyo to a Korean father and a Japanese mother, but all her grandparents are Korean.

Huh opted to compete for Korea instead of Japan to honor her grandmother, whose last wish was for Huh to represent Korea at the Olympics. In order to make that wish come true, Huh, who had dual citizenship in Korea and Japan, renounced her Japanese citizenship in December last year.

Huh is also the great-granddaughter of Korean independence activist Huh Suk, who lived from 1857 to 1920 during the Japanese colonial period that lasted from 1910 through 1945.

Huh said in December last year that if she medals at the Olympics she will visit her great-grandfather’s memorial altar in Gunwi County, Daegu.

From being born as the descendant of a Korean independence activist to mastering the Japanese martial art of judo, who is Huh?

Finding talent at a young age

Becoming a judoka was perhaps not a difficult call for Huh, as she started learning the sport at age six thanks to the influence of her father, who is an ex-judoka.

She proved her talent in the sport even before making her junior pro debut by winning a Japanese nation-wide middle school judo championship when she was in ninth grade.

Her performance carried over when she moved to Korea, winning a Korean junior pro tournament in 2019 to earn a place in the Korean junior national squad.

Making a name on the international stage

It didn’t take Huh long to see success at the international level, winning a bronze medal at the 2019 Asian Junior Championships in Taiwan, just a month after making it into the junior national squad.

She continued to establish herself as a prodigy on the senior stage, coming in fifth place at the 2019 World Junior Championships in Morocco.

Her notable performance as a junior judoka was enough to earn her a place in the senior Korean national squad in 2022.

Huh Mi-mi poses for a photo during an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo at the JoongAng Building in western Seoul on Aug. 8, 2022. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Immediately after Huh earned the Taeguk mark on the senior stage, she proved that her performance as a junior judoka was not a fluke.

At the Judo Grand Slam Tbilisi in Geogria in June 2022, she beat strong competitors like 2016 Olympic gold medalist Rafaela Silva to win gold, before topping the podium again at the Judo Grand Slam Abu Dhabi later that year.

Since then, standing on the podium has become the norm for Huh. She claimed two gold medals at two Judo Grand Prix events in 2023 and also secured a bronze at two Grand Prix tournaments.

The first half of 2024 saw Huh warm up for the Olympics effectively — winning medals on bigger stages.

Huh Mi-mi poses on the podium with her gold medal during the World Championships in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on May 20. [AFP/YONHAP]

Starting off with a gold medal at the Grand Prix in January, she collected a silver at the Asian Championships in Hong Kong in April and went on to win the most prestigious gold medal in her career at the time: Gold at the 2024 World Judo Championships in May.

The World Championships are the highest level of international judo competition alongside the Olympic judo tournament.

Which Korean judoka legend can Huh challenge?

With a medal at nearly every major tournament, Huh can now look to the future as she muscles in on the territory of some of Korea’s biggest judo legends.

An Asian Games medal is missing from her cabinet, but medaling at the Asiad in 2026 will allow her to follow in the footsteps of women’s national team head coach Kim Mi-jung, who trained her.

Kim was the first female Korean judoka to win an Olympic gold in 1992 and claimed two medals apiece from the world championships and Asiad.

Another Olympic medal would put Huh up with Korean legend Cho Min-sun, who won two Olympic medals — a gold in 1996 and bronze in 2000 — and two Asiad medals, four world championship medals and multiple honors from other international tournaments.

No female Korean judoka has won three Olympic medals.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]