Badminton champion's plea for overhaul of old system voted top S. Korean sports story of 2024

Moments after winning her first Olympic gold medal in Paris on Aug. 5, South Korean badminton star An Se-young was not in the mood for celebration.

In her media availability following her women's singles title, An criticized the Badminton Korea Association and the national team staff for mismanaging her injury from the previous year and accused them of a series of old practices and customs that she deemed unfair to athletes. An even hinted she would no longer compete for the national team and that she had been fueled by her outrage toward the national badminton association.

Her words prompted an investigation by the sports ministry, which later demanded the dismissal of the BKA's president, Kim Taek-gyu.

An's public criticism of the BKA, leading to calls for improving training conditions for athletes, was voted the No. 1 sports story of 2024 in Yonhap News Agency's annual survey of 49 South Korean newspapers and broadcasters.

Sports journalists nationwide were asked to vote on newsworthy stories, with a first-place vote worth 10 points. An's story earned 363 points.

An's gold was one of 13 for South Korea at the Paris Games, tying the country's all-time mark for a Summer Olympics and exceeding expectations. South Korea's surprising performance in France ranked second on the list with 348 points.

South Korea previously won 13 gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics. Its 32 total medals in Paris were one shy of its record set at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

South Korea won medals in 11 different sports, with its archers sweeping up all five gold medals up for grabs and its shooters on target for three gold medals.

Checking in at No. 3 was the story centered around the beleaguered head of the Korea Football Association, Chung Mong-gyu, with 307 points.

Chung has defied calls for his resignation by launching a bid for his fourth term at the helm, with the election set for Jan. 8, 2025. Much of the criticism against Chung stems from the KFA's controversial hiring of Hong Myung-bo as the new men's national team head coach.

The KFA was panned for lacking transparency and for not sticking to a proper vetting process when hiring Hong in July. The sports ministry carried out a monthslong probe into the KFA's operations and demanded at least the suspension of Chung from his duties. But the KFA appealed the ruling, and Chung forged ahead with his election campaign.

While football was reeling from controversy, baseball firmly established itself as South Korea's national pastime in 2024. The Korea Baseball Organization set a single-season attendance record with 10,887,705, shattering the previous mark of 8,400,688 set in 2017, and it ranked fourth on Yonhap's list with 262 points.

All 10 clubs averaged over 10,000 fans per game at home, with a record six clubs surpassing 1 million total fans. The LG Twins drew 1,397,499 fans, a new record by a club in a season. The Hanwha Eagles had 47 sellouts and the league had 221 sellouts overall, both of them records.

South Korea's loss in the semifinals of the Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup in February, and the firing of head coach Jurgen Klinsmann in the aftermath, ranked fifth with 251 points.

South Korea tried to win their first AFC title since 1960 but lost to Jordan 2-0 in the semifinals on Feb. 6. It was later revealed that two key players of the team, captain Son Heung-min and midfielder Lee Kang-in, had gotten into a scuffle over a game of table tennis during a team dinner on the eve of the semifinals, with Son suffering a dislocated finger in the melee. The KFA sacked Klinsmann, who had been under growing pressure to resign, on Feb. 16.

The Kia Tigers in the KBO had a lot more to celebrate than the national football team this year, and their run to their 12th Korean Series title ranked sixth on Yonhap's list with 173 points.

The Tigers advanced directly to the Korean Series after posting the best regular-season record at 87-55-2 (wins-losses-ties). Then in the best-of-seven championship round, the Tigers dispatched the Samsung Lions in five games, capped by their title-clinching, 7-5 win on Oct. 28.

The Tigers improved to a perfect 12-for-12 in their Korean Series history, and no KBO club has won more championships than the Gwangju-based club.

Weeks after the Tigers clinched their title, Korean Sport & Olympic Committee President Lee Kee-heung was suspended by the sports ministry over a series of alleged misconduct, including illicit hiring practices and misappropriation of funds.

However, Lee was still cleared by the KSOC's own subcommission on fair play to run for his third term. As of Wednesday, Lee had yet to officially declare his candidacy for the Jan. 14 election but is largely expected to do so. The apparent power struggle between the ministry and Lee received 163 points to rank seventh.

This has not been a great year for South Korean football across many levels, and the men's under-23 national team failed to make it to the Paris Olympics, following a loss to the underdogs Indonesia on penalties in a qualifying tournament on April 25. The crushing defeat, which came against Indonesia's South Korean-born head coach Shin Tae-yong, earned 134 votes to rank eighth.

South Korea had played at every Olympic men's football tournament since 1988 but lost 11-10 to Indonesia in the shootout in the quarterfinals of the AFC U-23 Asian Cup, which doubled as the Asian qualifiers for Paris. The top three teams -- the two finalists and the winner of the third-place match -- would earn their spots in the Olympics, while the fourth-place team would move on to an intercontinental playoff match. South Korea didn't even get that opportunity.

At No. 9 with 124 votes was the emergence of Tigers third baseman Kim Do-yeong as the face of the KBO. Just 20 years old at the start of his third season in 2024, Kim set several records en route to capturing the regular-season MVP award.

With 38 home runs and 40 steals, Kim became the youngest member of the 30-30 club and fell just two homers shy of just the second 40-40 season in KBO history. In April, Kim had 10 home runs and 14 steals, the first time a player reached double figures in those categories in a single month.

He also set a single-season record with 143 runs scored, and on July 23, he became the first player to hit for a natural cycle -- getting a single, a double, a triple and a home run in order -- without being retired.

Rounding out the top 10 was Choi Kyoung-ju's victory at the SK Telecom Open on the KPGA Tour on May 19, his 54th birthday. It made Choi the oldest winner in South Korean tour history, and it earned 65 points from journalists polled by Yonhap.

Choi, an eight-time PGA Tour winner, defeated Park Sang-hyun on the second playoff hole, but the real drama happened on the first playoff hole.

Back at the 18th hole for the playoff, Choi left his second shot short of the green. But in a fortuitous bounce, the ball had nestled on a tiny, island-like area surrounded by rocks, when it could well have fallen into a water hazard and effectively ended Choi's title bid.

Choi saved par from there. The two players returned to the 18th tee for the second playoff hole, and Choi finally beat Park with a par. (Yonhap)