“My prime is yet to come.”
Badminton Empress Ahn Se-young (Samsung Life), who had the best year in 2025 with 11 wins and a phenomenal winning rate of 94.8% (73 wins and 4 losses), was unexpected. “I’ve been at the top several times, but I’ve never been satisfied with my performance yet,” he said in an interview with Maeil Economy on the occasion of the Year of the Red Horse, the Year of the 丙午. I will win the fight against myself and once again push the envelope,” he said.
Ahn Se-young, who continues to develop every year by pushing herself to the limit as if she doesn’t know the word satisfaction, said, “I hope everything goes smoothly in the new year. We will make sure that it will be a year with no regrets left, he said. “We are preparing fiercely with the determination to put everything into our prime this year.”
It was in 2019 that Ahn Se-young, who first won the Taegeuk mark at the age of 15 in 2017, began to make her name known on the world stage. She won the Rookie of the Year award with five wins at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) event, rising to ninth in the women’s singles world ranking. Since then, growth has been even steeper. In 2023, she became the world No. 1 in women’s singles with nine wins in the BWF, including the world championship, which became the first Korean player to win the top. At the Hangzhou Asian Games, he won a gold medal, raising the status of Korean badminton.
Ahn Se-young, who also won the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, rewrote the history of badminton last year. He won $1 million in prize money alone, setting a tie record for the most wins in a single BWF season by winning 11 times. Ahn Se-young is the first player to surpass $1 million in prize money in a season for both men and women.
Ahn Se-young said, “I didn’t give up and did my best in every tournament, and last year I got an unbelievable result. “When I won 11 games in the season, I was so happy that I couldn’t express my feelings,” he recalled.
An open attitude that accepts anything if it is thought to help constant evolution and performance is the secret to becoming the world’s best player.
“We have to evolve again and again to survive the fierce competition every year,” he said. Sometimes I’m afraid of changing, but I want to do better, so I keep trying new things,” he explained.
There is no end to learning. I have to think and study to do better, he said. “I want to win more games, so I’m not neglecting my efforts to make my competitors’ strengths mine.” “I will not change my mind to learn in the future,” he added.
Ahn Se-young won the international competition last year and received the highest praise for being “unrivaled.” Ahn Se-young emphasized, “You have to prepare until you feel perfect to play the game comfortably,” adding, “Confidence is completed with thorough preparation.” He is planning to carry out intensive training again this year.
Ahn is at a new starting point, leaving behind the emotion and joy of last year. He boarded the plane at 0:10 a.m. on New Year’s Day to participate in the BWF Super 1000 Malaysian Open, and immediately starts his 2026 season schedule.
Ahn Se-young, who unfortunately withdrew from the Chinese Open last year due to an injury, will challenge the Super 1000 Slam, which will win all four Super 1000 Series competitions this year. Another greedy record is the second consecutive Asian Games. If she wins the women’s singles title at the Aichi Nagoya tournament in September, Ahn will become the first Korean badminton player to win two consecutive titles.
Ahn Se-young expressed her determination to overcome any adversity. “When the game doesn’t go as I wanted, and a mistake comes out, I have a day to think deeply about it. And then I ask myself a question. Based on the conclusions made at this time, we are trying to solve the problem. As I did earlier, I am ready to challenge myself until this time again.”
[Reporter Lim Jungwoo]
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