여홍철
Silver medallist in vault at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics; former gymnast and university professor
| Life | 1971 |
| Era | 현대 |
| Clan | 함양 여씨 |
Life & career
Yeo Hong-chul (b. 1971) is a former South Korean artistic gymnast, born on 28 May 1971 in Imdong, Gwangju. He is classified by Wikipedia and listed in Namuwiki's roster of Hamyang Yeo figures. His main event is the vault.
His silver medal in the vault at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics is introduced as the first Olympic silver in Korean gymnastics. The same year he won vault silver at the World Championships in San Juan, and at the Asian Games he won vault gold in Hiroshima in 1994 and Bangkok in 1998, the first Korean gymnast to win twice in a row. He also won vault gold at the 1991 Universiade.
He is known for 'Yeo 2', a vault with two and a half twists in a stretched body, and the International Gymnastics Federation named the skills after his surname. He retired after the 2000 Sydney Olympics, earned a doctorate in physical education at the Korea National Sport University, and has been a professor at Kyung Hee University since 2003. His daughter Yeo Seo-jeong won the women's vault bronze at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, making them Korea's first father-daughter medallists.
Yeo 1 and Yeo 2
'Yeo 1' is a skill he imagined as a child that the International Gymnastics Federation formally named 'Yeo' after his surname, and 'Yeo 2' was developed before the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games. It is a case of a Korean name entering international gymnastics terminology.
Educator and broadcaster
After retiring he earned a doctorate and teaches at a university, while appearing in entertainment programmes that have helped popularise gymnastics. As he is living, only publicly available career facts are given here.
Descendants
His daughter Yeo Seo-jeong is also a vault gymnast.