DistantNews
Support us
🇰🇷 South Korea /Sports

“After our final gold, live your own life”: Boccia champion Choi Ye-jin and her mother prepare for one last partnership

From Dong-A Ilbo · () Korean

Translated from Korean and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources New plan
  • Boccia player Choi Ye-jin and her mother, Moon Woo-young, plan to end their 19-year athlete-assistant partnership after the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games.
  • Choi, a BC3 world No. 1, has won Paralympic gold medals and will seek her first Asian Para Games gold after taking silver in 2023.
  • Moon said she intends to retire as an assistant after the October competition, while Choi aims to continue competing independently.

For 19 years, Moon Woo-young has been her daughter’s eyes, hands and split-second partner on the boccia court. In October, the pair plans to make their final competitive appearance together at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games.

I want to win a gold medal.

· Choi Ye-jinHer wish persuaded her mother to postpone retirement for one final tournament together.

Choi Ye-jin began playing boccia at 17 in 2008. Moon, a former taekwondo athlete, closed the aerobics academy she had run for more than 20 years and became her daughter’s competition assistant. Choi won individual gold at the 2012 London Paralympics, pairs silver at Rio 2016 and pairs gold at Tokyo 2020. A slump kept her out of South Korea’s team at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, but she regained the world No. 1 ranking in the women’s BC3 class.

Moon is now the oldest assistant on South Korea’s boccia team. As other parents who partnered their children gradually retired, she remained the team’s only family assistant. She had considered retirement for two years because the job requires her to crouch for long periods, and she announced her intention to stop earlier this year. Her daughter changed her mind with eight words: “I want to win a gold medal.”

This time, gold.

· Choi Ye-jinShe described her goal for the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games.

Choi reached the final at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Para Games but lost to China’s Yang Beibei, settling for silver. She now wants the individual gold that has eluded her. “This time, gold,” she said recently at the Icheon Athletes’ Village, clenching her fist. Moon smiled and said she would retire after the tournament because her daughter would now be able to “fly freely” without her.

I will win the gold medal at this tournament and retire as an assistant. Ye-jin will now be able to fly freely without me.

· Moon Woo-youngMoon explained her plan to end their 19-year partnership after the competition.

In BC3 boccia, athletes cannot throw the ball themselves. They choose the position, length and angle of a ramp, while the assistant adjusts it with their back turned to the court. Choi and Moon often need fewer than five words to complete the process. Moon says she can understand her daughter from a glance. Choi, who was raised without being told that disability meant she could not do something, has pursued the sport with the same refusal to yield that marked her earliest competitions.

You can tell just by looking into her eyes.

· Choi Ye-jinShe described how she and her mother communicate during matches.
About this summary

Originally published by Dong-A Ilbo in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog