Judo Olympic medalists go for 1st Asian Games titles; taekwondo competition to begin
South Korean judoka Lee Joon-hwan attends the national team's press conference at the Jincheon National Training Center in Jincheon, Sept. 9, 2026. Yonhap
NAGOYA, Japan — A pair of Olympic medalists in judo will each chase their first Asian Games gold medals on Thursday.
Lee Joon-hwan will compete in the men's -81 kilograms, and Huh Mimi will do so in the women's -57kg on Day 2 of judo at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at Aichi International Arena in Nagoya.
Lee is the 2024 Olympic bronze medalist in his weight class, while Huh, a Japanese native and a descendant of a Korean independence fighter, got silver in her division at the same Olympics.
Lee took silver at the previous Asian Games in 2023. This is Huh's first Asian Games appearance.
The taekwondo competition will begin Thursday with poomsae, a non-contact, pattern demonstration discipline of the traditional Korean martial art.
Yun Kyu-sung is considered a gold medal threat in the men's individual poomsae event at Toyohashi Gymnasium in Toyohashi, some 85 kilometers southeast of the main host city, Nagoya.
Elsewhere on Thursday, the men's field hockey team will play Malaysia in the semifinals at 7 p.m. Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium in Gifu, just north of Nagoya.
South Korea has not been to the men's field hockey final since winning gold in 2006 -- having won two bronze medals over the next four editions of the Asian Games.