South Korea gymnastics star Yeo Seo-jeong returns to the Asian Games stage after regaining her place on the national team. She won the 2026 Artistic Gymnastics National Team final selection event in commanding fashion.

The Olympic medalist finished first in the women's senior all-around event at the selection competition hosted by the Jincheon National Training Center in North Chungcheong Province.

Yeo sealed her berth for the 2026 Aichi Nagoya Asian Games with a combined score of 106.366 points in two days.

It was a further important step in Yeo’s return to the sport after injury problems over the past few years. It also put an end to a long wait to be back on the Asian Games stage, something she candidly said meant a lot to her.

Yeo took the lead on the first day with 54.100 points and remained in control on the second day, with one minor mistake on the balance beam. She finished the final day with a score of 52.266, 3.633 points ahead of the runner-up, Lee Yoon-seo.

“I feel relieved to have recovered well from my injury and regained my form,” Yeo said through her agency, All That Sports, as published on the Chosun Daily.

“Although I made a mistake on the balance beam today, I will work hard in training to improve my weaknesses,” she added.

The 23-year-old made history at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, earning bronze in the women’s vault final, becoming the first South Korean female gymnast to win an Olympic medal.

“I was deeply disappointed to miss the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games,” she said. “I’m excited to return to the Asian Games after eight years, and I will do my best to deliver a strong performance.”

Bigger tests await Yeo Seo-Jeong before Asian Games return

Yeo will first compete for South Korea at the 13th Senior Asian Championships in China in June and the 54th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in the Netherlands in October before competing in Aichi Nagoya in September.

The events are expected to be important lead-up competitions as Yeo looks to fine-tune her routines and re-establish herself on the international stage.

The competitions will also provide South Korea with a clearer picture of how its top female gymnast compares to Asia’s and Europe’s best before the continental event.

Yeo’s comeback has also put the spotlight once again on one of South Korea’s most famous sporting clans. Her father, Yeo Hong-cheol, took silver in the men’s vault at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, becoming the first South Korean father-daughter duo to both reach an Olympic podium.

Yeo enters a busy international season with both expectation and experience, and slowly her confidence is returning after injury struggles.

South Korean gymnastics officials are likely to see her as one of the country’s best medal hopes for the Asian Games.

Read more at the Gymnastics Digest!

Written by

Chitrak Mukherjee

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason