▲ Asian Sports Festival

The 17th Annual Asian Games, a grand sports festival of 4.5 billion Asians, took place over 16 days in Incheon, Korea, from September 19th to October 4th, 2014. The 17th Annual Asian Games at Incheon featured the participation of 45 member countries of from the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) to compete in 36 sports.

The South Korean delegation of 994 athletes competed in 36 sports and also won 79 gold medals, 71 silver medals, 84 bronze medals and a total of 234 medals, finishing second on the medal table. A total of 30 athletes from Chungnam participated in 14 sports competitions and proved that Chungnam is strong in sports.  

The youngest gold medalist in yachting, Seongbin Park(14 years old) of Daecheon Seo Middle School at Boryeong made headlines. Seungbin Park, born on October 10th, 2000, made the gold fleet at optimist, marking 16 years since the last gold medal in yachting won by a Korean citizen.

Aram Shin won a silver medal in women's team épée fencing. Lee Yong-hyun, affiliated with the Chungnam Sports Council, won the silver in the men’s daoshu and gunshu at the Ganghwa Dolmens Gymnasium.

Jina Park and Daehwan Kim in boxing, Jongeun Kim, Suji Jang, Darae Kim, Eunji Cho in hockey, and Youngmun Lee in usu and kung fu all won medals to display the potential of the Chungnam’s strength.

The sportsman spirit of Chungnam also proved itself through the 2014 Asian Para Games which was opened on October 18, 2014 and ended on October 24, 2014. 26 athletes from Chungnam (almost triple the number who participated in the 2010 iteration of the games in Guangzhou) competed.

This success is due to the continuous training of athletes by founding a professional paralympic athlete team. Hence, Jung A Kim from Chungnam won four bronze medals in women’s fleuret and épée fencing, and Heemyeong Yu, Insu Park, and Youngrae Cho added 4 bronze medals in fleuret fencing.

Jongseok Park in men's half-lightweight (66kg) judo won two silver medals, and Pyeongwha Bae men's heavyweight (100kg) judo won a silver and bronze medal each.