In 2014 the Republic of Korea women’s team became the first – and only – nation outside of Europe to win the IHF Women’s Junior (U20) World Championship title when they won gold in Croatia, going on to win Youth Olympic Games gold a few weeks later. 

In 2022, Korea repeated world championship gold, this time in the youth category, winning the IHF Women’s Youth (U18) World Championship title.

And the legacy of those victories is still being felt in 2025 with the Korea team at the IHF Women’s World Championship featuring a number of players from those medal-winning teams.

From the 2014 title-winning team, left back Hur Youjin and goalkeeper Park Saeyoung are joined by head coach Lee Kyechung and his assistant Chong Yeonho, while a trio of players from the 2022 world champions have been promoted to the senior team in right back Lee Hyewon, right wing Cha Seoyeon and centre back Kim Minseo.

 

Croatia 2014 to Germany/Netherlands 2025

“It was 2014, 11 years ago and it is such a long memory,” says Park about Croatia 2014 to ihf.info as her side prepares to say goodbye to the world championship with a match against Czechia on Sunday (7 December). “To be honest, I remember feeling desperate to win. As a young player, you have more pure happiness compared to when you are a senior player.”

That pure happiness came from Korea’s eight wins on their journey to the top of the podium, with just one preliminary group loss on the way.

After beating Kazakhstan (48:26) in their opener, Czechia (27:30) handed them an early defeat but they went on to win their remaining group games, against hosts Croatia (29:27) then Uruguay (45:22) and Norway (34:27) - including Maren Aardahl and Malin Aune – before seeing off Serbia in the eighth-finals (32:28), Romania (36:27) in the quarter-final, Germany (28:24) – featuring Xenia Smits – in the semi-finals and then Russia in the final (34:27).

“We don’t remember the final that much,” says Park. “But, for me, the most memorable match was the semi-final against Germany https://www.ihf.info/node/2591. We almost gave Germany the match but we pursued them and our goalkeeper – Halim Woo – had an almost 50% save rate or higher. Without her, we would have lost the match.” 

And for Hur Youjin, that experience 11 years ago is still having an effect now, even if the back-court player sometimes needs a reminder of what she has achieved.

“This experience in 2014 helped me to move into the senior team with more confidence as there is a really big difference between the junior and senior teams; it is more detailed and better team work is required. Back then, I didn’t recognise that the coach focused more on defence, but as I grew up, I realised how important defence is,” explained the 29-year-old.

“I keep my medal from 2014 in my medal box, where I keep all of them together and every time when I see them, it reminds me and I think: ‘how have we won that medal?’ as that world championship is difficult to win. Next, I want to win the Asian Games gold next year.”

For coach Lee and his assistant Chong, the memories from 2014 are clear too – but not necessarily those on the court.

“We were the first Asian team to win the world championship which we really appreciated and lucky to have won,” says coach Lee. “I remember the closing party with all the other teams in the hotel and even though I coach the senior team now, 2014 is my favourite memory.”

“From the quarter-finals onwards, the song ‘Gangnam Style’ (by Korean artist PSY) was getting popular,” explains assistant Chong. “So whenever we won a match, all the spectators were singing and dancing to that altogether and thanks to that, we felt that we were in Korea, not in Croatia.”

The relationship between the coaches is clear – both smiling and laughing with each other when reminded of their success together in what has now been a multiple-decade partnership.

“Following 2014 we been together at the 2018 Asian Games, and then, almost seven years later, we have now got back together for the third time. Our partnership is really strong and nobody can take this from us.”

 

2022 IHF Women's Youth World Championship to Germany/Netherlands 2025

Together, the coaching partnership is now setting its sights on the 2026 Asian Games which will be held in Aichi Prefecture, Japan in September and October next year – a key tournament for Korea who are resetting their team in the new Olympic cycle, which allows that introduction of that trio of 2022 gold medallists.

“We have three young players in the team who are young but showing good performances in their club teams – they are fast and have great potential,” says coach Lee. “We do have physically great players but all are injured so we had to pick some smaller-sized player to make up those spots and we need to defeat Japan in order to advance to the Olympic Games so becoming Asian Champion is our first goal.”

Hoping to help coach Lee achieve that goal are youngsters Lee, Cha and Kim, the next generation of players who earned world championship gold three years ago when they beat eight European teams in eight matches to claim the title.

First off, Switzerland (32:28), Germany (34:28) – featuring Nieke Kuhne and Viola Leuchter – and Slovakia (34:30) were dispatched in the preliminary group before Romania (33:31) and Netherlands (26:24) were defeated in the main round.

The quarter-finals saw a Tomas Axner-coached Sweden beaten (33:27), Petra Simon’s Hungary (30:29) in the semi-finals and then Denmark, featuring Julie Scaglione, in the final (31:28).

“At first, I never expected to win the gold,” says right wing Cha Seoyeon, who ended with 32 goals and part of the All-star Team as best right wing of the tournament. “But as we won every single match, and finally won gold, it was totally different feelings of happiness, even compared to winning a national championship in Korea.”

“Our strengths were our speed and fast passing, but we had trained a lot,” explained centre back Kim Minseo who finished second in the goalscoring charts on 58 goals and won the tournament MVP award. “The other European teams weren’t prepared [for that] and that’s why we won the gold.”

And with the players restricting the use of their mobile phones around the game to concentrate on the task in hand, it took some time for the players to realise what they had achieved.

“Right after we won the gold medal it was kind of unrealistic to know what we had achieved,” said Kim sitting alongside her two teammates about not being able to check their phones. “But when we got back to Korea, we had a lot of interviews, that’s when it felt more realistic and happy that we had done something huge. I was the MVP of the event, and these two were in the All-star Team for their positions and I keep my medals at home in a display case and look at them sometimes.”

And this experience has helped the trio cope with the move up to the senior team which comes with more responsibilities and demands.

“When I was in the youth team, I was very young but it was youth level which meant we could compete against the same age group of players,” says centre back Kim. “Now, at the senior level, the ages, careers and styles are different, so there are more difficulties facing the foreign teams, but as their playing styles are differ from Korea’s, we can learn how others play.”

“We’ve been through all the adversity and shared the best moments together,” adds Cha. “This means that we can help each other when something happens in the senior team, we can share the good things that really help us supporting each other and I really want to be with them next time also.”

 

Different generations: same goal

With a healthy mix of experience and youth, plus the determination to put Korean women’s handball back on the global handball map once more after the great women’s sides of the late 1980s through to the early 2000s, the future looks promising for the squad who are going through a period of change.

“That happened before I was born, but it is really hard to not just win medals, but to make it to being the top seed. Back then, it was quite common [for Korea],” says 2022 world champion Kim about that golden generation of Olympic, world and Asian medal winners. “That history has motivated me to be a better player.”

“We have pride and responsibility at the same time,” adds 2014 world championship winning goalkeeper Park about representing her side in this new era. “But this motivates us to imagine many Korean fans are watching Korea. It just motivates me and I want to do it better a lot.”

And right back Lee Hyewon wants to aim for the top too. “I want to keep going in my career with these two together and win some medals,” she says looking at her two teammates sitting either side of her. “We want to be top seeds in a world championship and, we, as the Korean team, are always looking up.”

That entire squad at Germany/Netherlands 2025 play their club handball in the Korean women’s league, ‘H League’, rebranded recently and with attempts being made to fully professionalise it in the future.

One player missing from the Korean team in 2025 is the former Gyor left back Ryu Eun-hee who has returned home to play in the league, with coach Lee hoping to use her experience in the future.

“She had a great career in the Hungarian League and came back to the H League so it was quite tough for her to join the national team right away,” said the coach. “We don’t have many experienced right back at the moment, so, maybe, for the next generation, she can be a great help for the team.” 

And as the interview concludes with the coaching pair, they just have time to reminisce about their careers and the love for the sport.

“I learned everything in my life from handball,” says assistant coach Chong with a big smile. “I really appreciate what I have become now thanks to handball.”   
“I can’t think of my life without handball,” simply concludes coach Lee. 

With thanks to Hochan Lee and Hyungwoo Lee