▲ Yeo Seo-jeong (File Photo: Yonhap News)
Artistic gymnastics star Yeo Seo-jeong (Jecheon City Hall) has been named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the National Sports Festival, becoming the first gymnast to receive the honor in 14 years.
Yeo, who won four gold medals at the competition, was selected as the MVP of the 107th National Sports Festival in a press corps vote announced by the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee on October 22, receiving 30 out of 56 votes (53.7%).
She is the first artistic gymnast to win the National Sports Festival MVP since Sung Ji-hye 14 years ago in 2012.
She also became the third artistic gymnast in history to claim the National Sports Festival MVP honor, following Kim Kyung-hoon in 1986 and Sung Ji-hye.
On October 7 at Halla Gymnasium in Jeju, Yeo won the gold medal in the women's general division individual all-around with 52.966 points and a silver medal in the team all-around with 190.000 points. On October 9, she secured gold medals in the vault (14.083 points), balance beam (13.233 points), and floor exercise (13.000 points), as well as a bronze medal in the uneven bars (12.700 points).
With a total of six medals—four golds, one silver, and one bronze—she achieved the highest performance among athletes competing in the general division.
Swimmer Kim Seo-young (Gyeongsangbuk-do Provincial Office) won four golds and one silver, swimmer Kim Young-bum (Gangwon State-do Provincial Office) won four golds, and swimmer Hwang Sun-woo (Gangwon State-do Provincial Office) secured four golds plus one exhibition event gold, falling short of Yeo's record.
Hwang attempted to win his fifth career National Sports Festival MVP title to tie Park Tae-hwan for the most individual awards in history, but the bid fell through.
Yeo is the daughter of Yeo Hong-chul, executive managing director of the Korea Gymnastics Association and a silver medalist at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and is widely recognized as a leading figure in artistic gymnastics.
She won a bronze medal in the vault at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and claimed the vault titles at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games and the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
Yeo will receive a cash prize of 5 million won and a trophy from the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee.
The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee has been selecting the MVP since the 61st competition in 1980.
Meanwhile, the artistic gymnastics events were held as preliminary matches prior to the opening ceremony of the competition.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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