Olympic 'main character' Kim Ye-ji to take a break from shooting

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Olympic 'main character' Kim Ye-ji to take a break from shooting

Published: 07 Nov. 2024, 09:34 Updated: 07 Nov. 2024, 17:49

JIM BULLEY
jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr

Korea's Kim Ye-ji competes in the final round of the women's 10-meter air pistol at the Paris Olympics on July 28. [YONHAP]

Olympic silver medalist sport shooter and internet icon Kim Ye-ji announced Wednesday that she would be taking a break from the sport, terminating her contract with her current team to spend more time with her family.

“With the National Sports Festival last month as her final competition for the year and the new season not starting until April next year, we decided to end the contract early,” Kim’s agency Plfil said in a statement Wednesday.

“Kim plans to take a break and prepare for a bigger leap forward, while continuing her activities to promote shooting.”

Kim went from a very good athlete in a fairly obscure sport to one of the biggest stars of the 2024 Paris Olympics in the summer, when her ice-cold composure coupled with an all-black tracksuit, blacked out shooting glasses, a casual hand in the pocket and more swag than everybody else in the Chateauroux Shooting Centre combined (at least until Yusuf Dikec of Turkey came along) caught the imagination of the internet and rocketed her to main character No. 1 at the Games.

Unsurprisingly, Kim’s life has changed dramatically since Paris. Over the past three months she has modeled for Louis Vuitton and Givenchy, secured an acting role in a spin-off series of the film “Asia,” become Tesla Korea’s new brand ambassador and continued to be the icon she is by meticulously replying to every single one of her online critics and working with the police to tackle the growing issue of AI deepfakes.

How long Kim’s absence from the sport is expected to last remains unclear, but both the agency statement and Kim have made it clear that she is not retiring and does plan to return.

“As an Olympic medalist, I'm taking a pause in my journey to spend time with my child and focus on my role as a mother," Kim said in a statement. "I hope this break is seen as part of my process to grow further as a shooting athlete. Although I haven't set a specific return date, I’ll do my best to come back as soon as possible."

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]