5 K-pop stars who were also pro level athletes: from Got7’s Jackson Wang’s fencing and Wei’s Kim Yohan’s taekwondo, to Enhypen’s Sunghoon’s figure skating – but who had Olympic dreams?
- K-pop idols from BTS’ RM to Aespa’s Ningning showed support for Korea’s athletes at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, but what about stars who are pro level in sports themselves?
- Jackson Wang was a Youth Olympic fencer while Kim Yohan was a taekwondo practitioner with a chance at representing South Korea at the Summer Olympics
1. Got7’s Jackson Wang – fencing
While Jackson Wang is loved as a K-pop idol, he was also a talented fencer before his music career. Coming from a family of gold medal athletes, Jackson trained in fencing with his father during his teenage years. At the age of 16, he became a Youth Olympic-level sabre fencer with Hong Kong’s official junior team.
And that was just the start of his fencing journey. Jackson went on to win first place at numerous competitions including the Asian Junior and Cadet Fencing Championships. He represented China at the First Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2014 and ranked 11th in the world junior sabre at the time.
Due to his fame as a K-idol and his history as a fencer, he was featured in the 2021 promotional video for the Tokyo Olympics.
2. Enhypen’s Sunghoon – figure skating
Belonging to a popular fourth generation group, Enhypen’s Sunghoon was once a graceful international figure skater. With a decade of ice skating experience, Sunghoon performed in top-tier competitions all over the world.
Sunghoon snagged a silver medal at the 2013 South Korean Figure Skating Championships. From there, he continued to glide his way up in the figure skating world by winning gold medals at the 2015 Asian Open Trophy and the 2015 Lombardia Trophy in Italy.