Ahn, highest win rate ever in a single season at 95%
Seung-jae Seo and Won-ho Kim, most wins in men’s doubles with 11
Figure skating Cha Jun-hwan and Kim Chae-yeon, accompanied by AG Kim
Sunwoo Hwang breaks 200m freestyle record
Table tennis Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin win after defeating China
Choi Ga-temperature Snowboard World Cup ‘normal’
If one were to name the Korean sports event that will shine the most on the world stage in 2025, badminton will inevitably be mentioned. This is because Korean badminton has ushered in a ‘golden era’ by writing new history in the women’s singles and men’s doubles events this year.
The main players who made Korean badminton shine are the ‘shuttlecock queen’ Ahn Se-young and the emerging ‘golden duo’ Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho (hereinafter referred to as Samsung Life Insurance). They won the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Finals, the final match of the season that ended in Hangzhou, China on the 21st and is a competition with a ‘Battle of Kings’ character, and recorded 11 wins each for the season. This was the moment when Korea left a new milestone in world badminton history by tying the record for the most wins in a season with Kento Momota (Japan), a men’s singles player who won 11 wins in 2019.
In particular, this is not the only achievement of Ahn Se-young. Ahn Se-young recorded 73 wins in 77 games this season, with a win rate of 94.81%, surpassing Lin Dan (China)’s previous record of 92.75% (64 wins, 5 losses) in 2011, recording the highest win rate ever in a single season. He also earned $1,003,175 this year, becoming the first player to exceed $1 million in prize money (about 1.481 billion won) in a single season.
Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho, who formed the doubles team for the first time last January, also participated in the great feat of winning 11 games this season. In terms of men’s doubles alone, this achievement surpasses the record of 10 wins in a single season set by China’s Li Yongbo and Tian Bing in 1988. In the case of Seo Seung-jae, before pairing up with Kim Won-ho, he also won the BWF World Tour Super 300 Thailand Masters with Jinyong (Yonex) earlier this year, surpassing Momota and setting a personal record of 12 wins. In this way, Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho emerged as the ‘golden duo’ following Park Joo-bong, Kim Moon-soo, Kim Dong-moon, Ha Tae-kwon, and Lee Yong-dae and Jeong Jae-seong.
Meanwhile, as BWF moves to change the 21-point system to a 15-point system, some are wary of whether this is a check to prevent Ahn Se-young’s strong dominance in the second half. In response, BWF Secretary General Thomas Lund refuted these claims in an official statement sent to the Korean media, explaining, “Rather, this system reform is to create an environment in which top star players like Ahn Se-young can play for a longer period of time.” The decision on whether to introduce the 15-point system will be decided by the votes of member countries at the regular general meeting held in Horsens, Denmark, in April next year.
There are quite a few players who showed their presence to the world by waving the Korean flag this year, not only in badminton but also in many other sports. Korean figure skating men’s and women’s singles figures Cha Jun-hwan (Korea University) and Kim Chae-yeon (Suri High School) won their first ever joint gold medal at the 2025 Harbin Asian Winter Games held in February. Cha Jun-hwan is a silver medalist at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, but won the Asian Games by defeating Kagiyama Yuma (Japan), who made a series of mistakes. Kim Chae-yeon beat Kaori Sakamoto (Japan), who was called ‘the world’s strongest’, and rose to the top with a great clean performance. This is the first time that Korean figure skaters have won more than two medals at the Asian Winter Games.
It was a year in which Korean swimming stars such as Hwang Sun-woo and Kim Woo-min (Gangwon Provincial Office) also achieved outstanding results. At the National Sports Festival held in Busan in October, Hwang Sun-woo competed in his main event, the men’s 200m freestyle, and ran a time of 1 minute 43.92 seconds, breaking the previous Asian record (1 minute 44.39 seconds) held by Chinese swimming star Sun Yang for the first time in eight years. Hwang Sun-woo, who seemed to have fallen into a slump for a while, clearly announced that he had definitely recovered by leaving a good record. Prior to this, Kim Woo-min won a bronze medal in the men’s 400m freestyle at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore held in July, marking his second consecutive World Championships medal in this event following last year’s Doha Games in Qatar.
Table tennis mixed doubles players Lim Jong-hoon (Korea Exchange) and Shin Yu-bin (Korean Air) achieved the feat of climbing over the seemingly tall Great Wall of China and reaching the top of the world. They won the mixed doubles event at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Hong Kong Finals 2025, the season’s ‘king of kings’ that ended in Hong Kong on the 13th, defeating the strongest Chinese players in both the semifinals and finals. This is the first time that a Korean player has won this competition. In particular, it was an even more valuable victory because the opponent in the final was the team of Wang Chu-qin and Sun Ying, who were ranked No. 1 in the men’s and women’s singles world rankings. The team of Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin had lost all six matches against the team of Wang Chu-qin and Sun Ying, but it was also their first win in their seventh match.
As the Winter Olympics season began, good news came from the snowy fields. Snowboard powerhouse Choi Ga-on (Sehwa Girls’ High School) got off to a good start by winning both women’s halfpipe events at the two International Ski Federation (FIS) Snowboard World Cups held in the 2025-2026 season. Choi Ga-on, who emerged as a promising player by taking first place in the World Cup for the first time in his career at the US tournament in December 2023, injured his back during a game in January last year and had to undergo surgery and focus on rehabilitation for a year. Choi Ga-on, who overcame hardships and returned this season, showed off his health by achieving his third career World Cup victory, raising expectations for Korea’s first snowboarding gold medal at the Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Olympics next February.
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