First Korean world champion Kim Jin-Ho named IOC Women and Sport Award winner for Asia

Los Angeles 1984 Olympic bronze medallist Kim Jin-Ho of Korea has been named the International Olympic Committee Women and Sport Award winner for Asia in 2020.

She was selected for her successful advocation of increased female representative within national sport governing bodies and her work with Myeong-goong Council, an organisation she founded that provides free archery lessons and scholarships to children, particularly girls.

Jin-Ho was the first Korea archer in history to win the World Archery Championships, eventually taking two titles.

The first came in Berlin in 1979. That competition was held on the same field as the city’s current stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup. Her second world title was won in Los Angeles in 1983, one year before Korea’s Olympic archery debut – and Jin-Ho’s Olympic bronze.

She also competed in three Asian Games, climbing the podium nine times.

Since the end of her international career, the 58-year-old has become a professor at the Korean National Sport University. She is also a board member of the Korean Archery Association and was previously a director of the Women’s Sport Association of Korea from 1990 to 1998.

The Korean Olympic Committee presented Jin-Ho with the Korea Sports Hero award in 2018.

Introduced in 2000, the International Olympic Committee’s Women and Sport Award highlights role models and change agents in pursuit of gender equality. Each winner receives a grant to help continue and extend their work.