Chang Hye-jin

Chang made her international debut in 2008 at the World University Games held in Chinese Taipei.[3] The following year she was selected to compete in Summer Universiade in Belgrade, winning gold medal in the women's team recurve event.[6] She successfully qualified for the South Korean senior team in 2010,[7] but in 2012 narrowly missed out on selection for that year's Summer Olympics in London, placing fourth in the national team trials in which the top three were chosen for Olympic competition.[4]

Chang made her debut at the biennial World Archery Championships in 2013, winning the women's team recurve title with Ki Bo-bae and Yun Ok-hee after defeating Belarus in a low-scoring final.[8] Eleven months later she won two medals at the 2014 Asian Games, reaching the gold medal match in both the women's team and women's individual recurve events. With teammates Jung Dasomi and Lee Tuk-young she secured South Korea's fifth consecutive women's team title after a comfortable victory over China, but was outshot by Jung by seven set points to three in the individual final.[9]

In the spring of 2016 Chang won qualification for the South Korean Olympic team on her second attempt, joining the reigning Olympic champion Ki Bo-bae and the women's recurve world number one Choi Mi-sun for the women's individual and women's team events in Rio de Janeiro.[10] Although the trio were widely expected to win their nation's eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal in the team competition, it was Choi and Ki who were tipped for success in the individual discipline after strong performances in the 2015 World Archery Championships,[11][12] with Chang later being described by Reuters as the "least-fancied" of the three Korean women.[13]

At the Olympic Games in July Chang concluded the preliminary 72-arrow ranking round in second position, scoring 666 points from a maximum of 720. This gave her the number two seed for the individual competition. With Choi and Ki also scoring highly to finish the round in first and third place respectively, a combined score of 1,998 points earned the trio the top seed for the team competition.[14] Chang, Choi, and Ki were ultimately successful in maintaining South Korea's undefeated streak in the team event, which took place prior to the individual competition, overcoming the second-seeded Russian women in a wind-affected final to win their nation's eighth successive Olympic title.[15]

As the number two seed in the individual event Chang avoided facing either Ki or Choi until at least the semi-final stage.[14] Four wins in the first four rounds duly set up an all-South Korean semi-final against Ki in the last four, with Choi having been eliminated in the preceding quarter-final round.[16] Although Ki was the favourite going into the match, Chang overcame a poor start - her second arrow scoring just three points in the windy conditions - to win by seven set points to three and advance to the final.[17] Her opponent in the final was Germany's Lisa Unruh, who had unexpectedly reached the gold medal match after concluding the ranking round in twenty-first place.[13] A victory by six set points to two earned Chang her second Olympic gold medal[17] and made her the eighth South Korean woman to become the Olympic individual archery champion. Her win also marked South Korea's twenty-second Olympic gold medal in archery, surpassing short track speed skating as the nation's most successful Olympic sport.[18]

Chang's achievements earned her the accolade of top female athlete at the 2016 Korea Woman Sports Awards.[19]

2017

Chang shoots an arrow during the women's team final at the 2017 World Archery Championships

Chang became the world's top female recurve archer in June 2017.[2] She continued her success at the top of the game after qualifying for the annual Archery World Cup final in September, winning gold with Kim Woojin in the mixed team event and bronze in the women's individual competition.[20] She achieved a further team gold medal at the World Archery Championships held in Mexico City the following month, and with teammates Choi Mi-sun and Kang Chae-young defeated host nation Mexico in the final, earning South Korea its thirteenth World Championship women's team gold medal.[21] Chang also reached the final of the women's individual event, but after struggling in the windy conditions lost against the Russian world number three Ksenia Perova.[22]

2018

Chang began 2018 strongly with victory in the first stage of the 2018 Archery World Cup in Shanghai, dropping just two points in the final against China's An Qixuan. In the second set she placed her three arrows within three centimetres of one another inside the target's inner-10 ring, a feat lauded by Mike Rowbottom of Inside the Games as "possibly the single best recurve group ever filmed".[23] One month later Chang reached the final of the World Cup's second stage in Antalya, but following a one-arrow shoot-off was defeated by Ksenia Perova for the second time in twelve months.[24]

In August Chang joined Kang Chae-young and Lee Eun-gyeong in the South Korean women's team for her second Asian Games, held in Jakarta. Although praised by the Korea JoongAng Daily for her consistency after retaining her place in the team for a fifth consecutive year, Chang delivered an uneven performance in her events, suffering quarter-final defeats in the women's individual event and in the mixed team competition before winning gold in the women's team event.[25][26] These results ran contrary to expectations of her winning gold in all three events and came amid wider South Korean sporting disappointments at the Games.[25][27] The Korea JoongAng Daily suggested that the pressure placed on her shoulders to succeed contributed to her inconsistent form, commenting that her "struggle seemed to be more mental than a lack of skill."[25]

At the World Cup final in September Chang was eliminated in the first round by Turkey's Yasemin Anagoz, who went on to finish as runner-up.[28] Despite her difficult end to the year, Chang retained her ranking as the world's number one ranked female recurve archer.[2]

2019

Chang won a silver medal at the 2019 World Archery Championships, reaching the final of the women's team recurve event with Choi Mi-sun and Kang Chae-young before losing to Chinese Taipei in the final, whose victory over their Korean rivals earned the nation its maiden title at the championships.[29] She was identified by the magazine Bow International in July as having noticeably dipped in form since the beginning of 2018.[30] In September Chang was eliminated from the national selection process for the 2020 Summer Olympics, precluding her from defending her Olympic titles in Tokyo.[31]