I got a dog and have been spending time with him.
Sung Ji Hyun has been South Korea’s top female badminton player for a long time. She is currently world No. 14 in the world and is looking forward to participating at the Olympics next year.
Sung is the daughter of two-time All England champion Kim Yun Ja and former national head coach Sung Han Kook. Her mother Kim is the last player to win the All England in singles and in doubles.
Sung Ji Hyun sat down with Badminton Unlimited to share some of her thoughts on the absence of tournaments, future plans and her upcoming wedding. Her message to fans was to stay safe and healthy.
Here are some of the excerpts from the interview.
The national team cannot train together so we are all training with our clubs.
A few months back when Korea’s Covid-19 cases dropped and stabilised, we had a domestic competition. But since the cases are increasing again, they have been put on hold until further notice.
I am getting chubbier day by day.
My physical condition has been good because I haven’t been straining myself too much as there aren’t any tournaments. I feel like I’ve put on weight.
Recently I’ve been pursing my PhD, so I’m trying to catch up on my studies that I wasn’t able to do much during my younger days.
Son Wan Ho and wedding plans.
Wan Ho and I were like close “older brother and younger sister” for some time, but somehow it all happened naturally. Some of our close friends used to tease us and eventually we developed our feelings.
We started to develop feeling because we are both single players and share similar challenges.
We had planned our wedding day to be on the 12th of December this year. But since the Covid-19 social distancing rules are prevalent [I’ll have to further monitor the situation, then decide if we want to push through with our original plan.
Plan after the Olympics
After the Tokyo Olympics next year, I’ll be 30 years old (31 in Korean age). So most likely I’ll retire from the national team after the Olympics.