Chang Hye-jin

Chang Hye-jin (Korean: 장혜진; Korean pronunciation: [tɕɐŋ.çe.dʑin] or [tɕɐŋ] [çe.dʑin]; born 13 May 1987) is a South Korean recurve archer. A two-time Olympic gold medalist, Chang was the Olympic champion in both the women's individual and women's team events at 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She is a former number one-ranked recurve archer, having headed the World Archery Rankings between 2017 and 2019.

For other uses, see Jang Hye-jin.

In this Korean name, the family name is Chang.
Chang Hye-jin
Chang at the 2014 Asian Games
Personal information
NationalitySouth Korean
Born13 May 1987 (1987-05-13) (age 33)
Daegu, South Korea
EducationKeimyung University
Height158 cm (5 ft 2 in)[1]
Weight50 kg (110 lb)[1]
Sport
SportArchery
Event(s)Recurve archery
ClubLH
Achievements and titles
Highest world rankingNo. 1 (26 June 2017)[2]
Medal record
Women's archery
Representing  South Korea
Summer Olympics
2016 Rio de Janeiro Individual
2016 Rio de Janeiro Team
World Championships
2013 BelekTeam
2017 Mexico CityTeam
2017 Mexico CityIndividual
2019 's-HertogenboschTeam
Asian Games
2014 Incheon Team
2018 Jakarta Team
2014 Incheon Individual
Summer Universiade
2009 Belgrade Team
Korean name
Hangul
장혜진
Revised RomanizationJang Hye-jin
McCune–ReischauerChang Hye-jin

After being introduced to archery at the age of eleven, Chang made her international debut in 2008. She first qualified for the senior South Korean national team in 2010 and has since regularly represented her country at international competitions. In addition to her Olympic achievements Chang has won team gold medals at the World Archery Championships, the Asian Games, and the Summer Universiade, and was the women's individual runner-up at the 2017 World Championships.

Early life

Chang Hye-jin was born on 13 May 1987[1] in the city of Daegu.[3] She was first introduced to archery at the age of eleven and participated in her first national tournament two years later. She won her first tournament during her second year of high school in Daegu, and after studying at Daegu's Keimyung University, joined the Seoul-based LH team to shoot professionally.[4] As of August 2018 she remains a member of the LH team.[5]

Career

2008–2014: Early career

Chang made her international debut in 2008 at the World University Games held in Chinese Taipei.[3] The following year she was selected to compete in Summer Universiade in Belgrade, winning gold medal in the women's team recurve event.[6] She successfully qualified for the South Korean senior team in 2010,[7] but in 2012 narrowly missed out on selection for that year's Summer Olympics in London, placing fourth in the national team trials in which the top three were chosen for Olympic competition.[4]

Chang made her debut at the biennial World Archery Championships in 2013, winning the women's team recurve title with Ki Bo-bae and Yun Ok-hee after defeating Belarus in a low-scoring final.[8] Eleven months later she won two medals at the 2014 Asian Games, reaching the gold medal match in both the women's team and women's individual recurve events. With teammates Jung Dasomi and Lee Tuk-young she secured South Korea's fifth consecutive women's team title after a comfortable victory over China, but was outshot by Jung by seven set points to three in the individual final.[9]

2016: Olympic champion

In the spring of 2016 Chang won qualification for the South Korean Olympic team on her second attempt, joining the reigning Olympic champion Ki Bo-bae and the women's recurve world number one Choi Mi-sun for the women's individual and women's team events in Rio de Janeiro.[10] Although the trio were widely expected to win their nation's eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal in the team competition, it was Choi and Ki who were tipped for success in the individual discipline after strong performances in the 2015 World Archery Championships,[11][12] with Chang later being described by Reuters as the "least-fancied" of the three Korean women.[13]

At the Olympic Games in July Chang concluded the preliminary 72-arrow ranking round in second position, scoring 666 points from a maximum of 720. This gave her the number two seed for the individual competition. With Choi and Ki also scoring highly to finish the round in first and third place respectively, a combined score of 1,998 points earned the trio the top seed for the team competition.[14] Chang, Choi, and Ki were ultimately successful in maintaining South Korea's undefeated streak in the team event, which took place prior to the individual competition, overcoming the second-seeded Russian women in a wind-affected final to win their nation's eighth successive Olympic title.[15]

As the number two seed in the individual event Chang avoided facing either Ki or Choi until at least the semi-final stage.[14] Four wins in the first four rounds duly set up an all-South Korean semi-final against Ki in the last four, with Choi having been eliminated in the preceding quarter-final round.[16] Although Ki was the favourite going into the match, Chang overcame a poor start - her second arrow scoring just three points in the windy conditions - to win by seven set points to three and advance to the final.[17] Her opponent in the final was Germany's Lisa Unruh, who had unexpectedly reached the gold medal match after concluding the ranking round in twenty-first place.[13] A victory by six set points to two earned Chang her second Olympic gold medal[17] and made her the eighth South Korean woman to become the Olympic individual archery champion. Her win also marked South Korea's twenty-second Olympic gold medal in archery, surpassing short track speed skating as the nation's most successful Olympic sport.[18]

Chang's achievements earned her the accolade of top female athlete at the 2016 Korea Woman Sports Awards.[19]

2017–2019: World number one
2017
Chang shoots an arrow during the women's team final at the 2017 World Archery Championships

Chang became the world's top female recurve archer in June 2017.[2] At the annual Archery World Cup final in September she partnered Kim Woojin to win the mixed team gold medal, one of five recurve golds achieved by South Korea at the tournament. She additionally defeated Tan Ya-ting of Chinese Taipei to secure the women's individual bronze following a semi-final loss to Ki Bo-bae, an outcome which reversed the pair's semi-final result at the 2016 Summer Olympics.[20] In October Chang won a further team title at the World Archery Championships held in Mexico City, defeating host nation Mexico with Choi Mi-sun and Kang Chae-young to earn South Korea its thirteenth World Championship women's team gold medal.[21] She was however defeated in the final of the women's individual event after struggling to shoot accurately in the wind-affected fifth and final set, finishing as runner-up to the Russian world number three Ksenia Perova.[22]

2018

Chang began 2018 strongly with victory in the first stage of the 2018 Archery World Cup in Shanghai, dropping just two points in the final against China's An Qixuan. In the second set she placed her three arrows within three centimetres of one another inside the target's inner-10 ring, a feat lauded by Mike Rowbottom of Inside the Games as "possibly the single best recurve group ever filmed".[23] One month later Chang reached the final of the World Cup's second stage in Antalya, but following a one-arrow shoot-off was defeated by Ksenia Perova for the second time in twelve months.[24] The World Cup's final stage held in Samsun later in the year saw Chang eliminated in the first round by Turkey's Yasemin Anagoz, who went on to finish as the runner-up.[25]

In August Chang joined Kang Chae-young and Lee Eun-gyeong in the South Korean women's team for her second Asian Games, held in Jakarta. Although she was praised by the Korea JoongAng Daily for her consistency after retaining her place in the team for a fifth consecutive year, Chang delivered an uneven performance in her events, suffering quarter-final defeats in both the women's individual and mixed team events before winning gold in the women's team event.[26][27] These results ran contrary to expectations of her winning gold in all three events and came amid wider South Korean sporting disappointments at the Games.[26][28] The Korea JoongAng Daily suggested that the pressure placed on her shoulders to succeed contributed to her inconsistent form, commenting that her "struggle seemed to be more mental than a lack of skill."[26] Chang nevertheless retained her position ahead of Perova and Lee as the World Archery Federation's top female recurve archer at the end of the year.[2]

2019–2020

Chang won a silver medal at the 2019 World Archery Championships, reaching the final of the women's team recurve event with Choi Mi-sun and Kang Chae-young before losing to Chinese Taipei in the final, whose victory over their Korean rivals earned the nation its maiden title at the championships.[29] She was identified by the magazine Bow International in July as having noticeably dipped in form since the beginning of 2018.[30] In September 2019 Chang was eliminated from the selection process for the 2020 Summer Olympics,[31] but due to the delay and re-organisation of the Games caused by the COVID-19 pandemic she was allowed a second opportunity to qualify the following year.[32]

See also

References
  1. "Chang Hye-jin". Rio 2016. Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Rio 2016. Archived from the original on 18 August 2016. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  2. Wells, Chris (31 December 2018). "Lee, Chang, Schloesser and Bostan end 2018 ranked #1 in the world". World Archery Federation. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  3. "On the road to Tokyo: star archer Chang and the team going for nine successive golds". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. 11 August 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  4. Ramstad, Evan (27 July 2012). "Missing the Olympics … By Centimeters". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 23 November 2019.(subscription required)
  5. Wells, Chris (10 August 2018). "The professional archery teams of Korea". World Archery Federation. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  6. Kim, Jae-won (12 July 2009). "Korea Grabs Four Golds in Archery". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on 25 November 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  7. Lee, Vanessa (29 October 2018). "Tough at the Top: Interview with Chang Hyejin". Bow International. Future. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  8. "United States win first recurve team world title in thirty years". World Archery Federation. 6 October 2013. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  9. "S. Korea grabs 3 archery golds". The Korea Herald. Yonhap News Agency. 28 September 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  10. Kim, Hyo-kyung (21 April 2016). "After a grueling journey, Olympics archery team decided". Korea Joong Ang Daily. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  11. "Experts predict: the Rio 2016 Olympic archery champions". World Archery Federation. 4 August 2016. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  12. Zorowitz, Jane (7 August 2016). "Preview: Men and women's individual archery competition". NBC Olympics. NBC Universal. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  13. Ransom, Ian (11 August 2016). "Archery: Chang keeps women's gold in Korean hands". Reuters. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  14. "Rio 2016: S. Koreans finish 1-2-3 in women's archery preliminaries". The Korea Times. Yonhap News Agency. 6 August 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  15. Ransom, Ian (7 August 2016). "Archery: Unflappable South Koreans protect proud legacy". Reuters. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  16. "South Korean captures women's archery gold at Olympics". USA Today. Associated Press. 11 August 2016. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  17. Ransom, Ian (12 August 2016). "Archery: Chang comes in from the cold to win gold". Reuters. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  18. Maitre Wicki, Ludivine (11 August 2016). "7 takeaways: Rio 2016 women's finals". World Archery Federation. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  19. Park, Ga-young (29 November 2016). "Olympic archery champion named top S. Korean female athlete of 2016". The Korea Herald. Yonhap News Agency. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  20. Rowbottom, Mike (3 September 2017). "South Korea unbeatable in recurve events at Archery World Cup Final". Inside the Games. Dunsar Media Company. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  21. "South Korea beats Mexico in women's recurve team final". EFE. 23 October 2017. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  22. "Perova gana la final femenina y Dong Hyun suma otra medalla" [Perova wins the women's final and Dong Hyun adds another medal]. Diario AS (in Spanish). EFE. 23 October 2017. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  23. Rowbottom, Mike (29 April 2018). "Woojin and Hye Jin lead South Korean clean sweep in recurve at Archery World Cup in Shanghai". Inside the Games. Dunsar Media Company. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
  24. Butler, Nick (26 May 2018). "Perova beats Chang to avoid complete South Korean domination at Archery World Cup". Inside the Games. Dunsar Media Company. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  25. Rowbottom, Mike (30 September 2018). "South Korea's Lee ends debut season with women's recurve gold at Archery World Cup Final". Inside the Games. Dunsar Media Company. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
  26. Kim, Ji-han; Kang, Yoo-rim (27 August 2018). "Korea's archers keep their eyes on victory". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  27. Jeehoo, Yoo (27 August 2018). "(Asian Games) Archers cherish team gold after early woes". Yonhap News Agency. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  28. Seok, Nam-jun (24 August 2018). "Korea Falters at Asian Games". The Chosun Ilbo. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  29. Pong, Po-an; Lim, Emerson (16 June 2019). "Women's recurve archery team takes first World Championship gold". Focus Taiwan. Central News Agency. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  30. Stanley, John (5 July 2019). "What's up with Korea?". Bow International. Future. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  31. Wells, Chris (24 September 2019). "Korea's Chang Hye Jin will not defend her Olympic title at Tokyo 2020". World Archery Federation. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  32. Seo, Dae-won (10 June 2020). "[단독] 양궁 장혜진·기보배, '도쿄행' 재도전 길 열렸다". SBS News (in Korean). Retrieved 6 September 2020.
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