'I like table tennis more than food': Clip of young Shin Yu-bin goes viral after bronze medal win

Olympic Sports

'I like table tennis more than food': Clip of young Shin Yu-bin goes viral after bronze medal win

Published: 31 Jul. 2024, 16:47

Five-year-old Shin Yu-bin on SBS entertainment show ″Star King″ (2007-) [SBS]

A video clip of table tennis player Shin Yu-bin as a child is going viral after the table tennis player’s bronze medal win at the Paris Olympics.

“I like table tennis more than food and my friends,” a five-year-old Shin says in a 2009 video clip from SBS entertainment program “Star King” (2007-2016).

Hyun Jung-hwa, the then-director of the Korean national table tennis team, describes her as a “genius” on the program.

Shin has since continued on the path of becoming a table tennis player, joining Team Korea in 2019 at the age of 14.

She participated in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics three years later at the age of 17. She failed to win any medals but earned the nickname “Ppiyaki,” a Korean onomatopoeia of a baby bird making chirping sounds, similar to the sounds she makes in matches.

After injuring her right wrist due to overuse after the Tokyo Olympics, Shin entered rehab. She returned to the sport in 2023 and won a silver medal at the 2023 World Table Tennis Championships in the duo category with player Jeon Ji-hee. The duo continued its streak into the 19th Asian Games, where the pair won the gold medal.

Shin and table tennis player Lim Jong-hoon won bronze at the Paris Olympics Tuesday, beating Hong Kong's Wong Chun Ting and Doo Hoi Kem 4-0 in the mixed doubles bronze medal match. The players claimed their first Olympic medals and ended Korea’s 12-year Olympic medal drought in the sport.

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]