Rhythmic gymnast Son Yeon-jae retires

By Baek Byung-yeul

Rhythmic gymnast star Son Yeon-jae, 22, has retired from the sport.

Her agency Galaxia SM officially announced Saturday that Son will no longer represent Korea as a rhythmic gymnast and will not compete in the national team trials next month.

Her retirement came six months after the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics where she finished fourth in the individual all-around final. After finishing fifth in the 2012 London Games, She aimed to become her country’s first medalist in the sport but just failed after scoring 72.898 points from hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon programs while Ukraine’s Ganna Rizatdinova earned 73.583 points.

After her agency’s announcement, she left her comment on her Instagram account, saying she had no regrets.

“I was so happy to be done, and I had done so much till the end. But I was overcome with emotion. Not because I had any regrets. I didn’t have even the smallest of regrets. I am so grateful and happy because I know how meaningful the past 17 years have been to me, and because I know how much I’ve learned and grown.

Son has been the country’s most touted rhythmic gymnast during her career. She is still the only Korean in the sport who won a medal at the World Championships, the Asian Games and the Summer Universiade.

Two years after making her senior debut in 2010, Son competed at the London Olympics aiming to be included in the top 10 and ranked fifth. In 2014, she became the first Korean to earn a world championship medal as she claimed a bronze medal in hoop competition at the International Federation of Gymnastics (FIG) World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Turkey. In the same year, she won her country’s first gold medal in the sport at the Incheon Asian Games. The following year, she also claimed three gold medals at the Gwangju Summer Universiade.

Though she has left the sport, her agency said she will continue to be involved in rhythmic gymnastics. “As an undergraduate senior, she will focus on schoolwork and may become a coach later,” the agency said.