S. Korean Women's Artistic Gymnastics Finishes 4th in Team Event... North Korea Wins Bronze

The South Korean women's artistic gymnastics national team, which sought its first team medal in 20 years, failed to reach the podium at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

Composed of Yeo Seo-jung (Jecheon City Hall), Lee Yun-seo (Gyeongsangbuk-do Provincial Government), Shin Sol-yi (Gangwon State Athletic Association), Lim Sumin (Jecheon City Hall), and Hwang Seohyun (Incheon High School of Physical Education), South Korea finished fourth with a total of 156.863 points across the vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise in the team final held today at the Rainbow Hall in Nagoya, Japan.

China claimed the gold medal with 166.462 points, while Japan won the silver with 165.362 points.

North Korea scored 158.329 points, beating South Korea by a margin of 1.466 points to take the bronze medal, securing a women's team bronze for the second consecutive time following the 2022 Hangzhou Games.

South Korea aimed for its first team podium finish in 20 years since the 2006 Doha Games—where it inherited the bronze medal following a subsequent disqualification of North Korea—but remained in fourth place.

At the Doha Games, South Korea originally finished fourth, but later inherited the bronze medal after North Korea's Cha Yong-hwa was stripped of the team silver medal due to a belatedly uncovered age falsification.

On this day, South Korea and North Korea were placed in the same group, engaging in a fierce medal race as they rotated through the four apparatuses together.

In the first rotation on the uneven bars, North Korea scored 38.833 points, pulling ahead of South Korea (37.599 points) by 1.234 points.

In the second rotation on the balance beam, Hwang Seohyun, who advanced to the apparatus final, demonstrated her skills with a score of 14.566 points.

While South Korea combined for 40.332 points on the beam, North Korea scored 41.365 points, widening the gap to 2.267 points.

South Korea launched a counterattack in the third rotation on the floor exercise.

Yeo Seo-jung, who qualified for the final in this apparatus, received 13.100 points, while Lim Sumin (13.033 points) and Shin Sol-yi (12.700 points) also delivered stable performances, combining for 38.833 points.

Before the final apparatus, the vault, South Korea narrowed the gap with North Korea to 1.733 points.

On the vault, a fierce pride match unfolded between Yeo Seo-jung and North Korea's An Chang-ok, who will also face each other in the individual apparatus finals.

Yeo Seo-jung received 14.133 points, lower than her preliminary score, but outperformed An Chang-ok (13.900 points) to rank first overall among all vault competitors in the team event that day.

However, despite Yeo Seo-jung's strong performance, South Korea failed to make up the deficits accumulated in the previous three apparatuses and remained in fourth place.

In the men's team final held on the same day, the South Korean national team composed of Ryu Sung-hyun, Kim Jae-ho, Lee Jung-hyo, Huh Woong, and Seo Jung-won finished fifth with a total of 236.359 points across six apparatuses, failing to win a medal.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.