Ahn Se-young: Aggressive Changes & Badminton Upgrade in 2024

[OSEN=강필주 기자] The interest of ‘Badminton Empress’ Ahn Se-young (24, Samsung Life Insurance), who was recognized as ‘GOAT (Greatest Of All Time)’ in name and reality, was not in maintaining records, but in another upgrade.

Last season, Ahn Se-young virtually dominated the women’s singles. He won his 11th championship of the season by defeating Wang Zhiyi (25, China) 2-1 in the final of the World Tour Finals, and tied the record for most wins in a single season held by Kento Momota (Japan) in men’s singles in 2019.

In addition, Ahn Se-young became the first player in badminton history to exceed $1 million in prize money in a single season. The winning rate also reached 94.8% (73 wins, 4 losses), far exceeding the 92.7% held by ‘legends’ Lin Dan (China) and Lee Chongwei (Malaysia).

Also, the most wins (73 wins), the most appearances (77 games), and advanced to the finals 12 times, semifinals 14 times, and quarterfinals 15 times. 2025 was, in fact, a year that proved to be Ahn Se-young’s overwhelming season.

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Seyoung Ahn looked back on the 2025 Paris World Championships held in France in August last year through an interview published on the Badminton World Federation (BWF)’s official YouTube channel ‘BWF TV’ on the 2nd (Korean time). It was the moment when she lost 0-2 (15-21, 17-21) to Chen Yufei (28, China) in the women’s singles semifinals.

Se-young Ahn revealed that the frustration she felt at the time became the stimulus for her overwhelming performance last season. Se-young Ahn said, “When I looked back on the game, I had a lot of frustrating thoughts,” and added, “I tried to relieve that frustration through practice.”

Ahn Se-young continued, “For now, my big goal is to achieve my fly style stably and quickly,” but also emphasized, “It’s not something that can be created overnight, so I have to keep testing and work hard until the results come out.”

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In particular, Ahn Se-young also changed her training method for change. Ahn Se-young confessed, “I do a lot of sparring with male players to change my playing style. This is because male players can practice a little faster than female players.”

What we are focusing on is attack. However, I plan to maintain my existing strengths of stamina and defense. Ahn Se-young emphasized, “What I need to do is to grow a little more while maintaining the defensive ability and stamina I have now.”

He added, “Opponents bring different tactics and play styles to beat me,” and “I’m also making more efforts to change my play style to suit my opponents.”

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Ahn Se-young won gold medals at the World Championships, Asian Games, and Olympics. However, Ahn Se-young is pushing herself again using ‘frustration’ as a driving force. With the 2026 season starting with the Malaysia Open on the 6th, I am curious about what kind of upgrades Ahn Se-young will make this year.

2026 is the year of the horse, the year of the horse. Coincidentally, Ahn Se-young was born in 2002, which is the year of the horse. We are looking forward to the energy that Ahn Se-young will show this year, which is called the ‘Year of the Red Horse’ where fire and words meet./[email protected]

Kang Pil-ju ([email protected])