Kim Ga-eun is a Korean player, currently ranked #18 in BWF’s World Ranking for women’s singles. At only 23 years old, and with over 147 career wins, Kim is absolutely one of Asia’s best players!
Born in Ulsan, South Korea, Kim first started playing badminton in 2006 when she was really young. In 2012 and 2013, she started competing in Junior championships in her home country like the KOREA JUNIOR OPEN BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIPS 2012 where she further gained more experience as a young player.
In 2014 and 2015, Kim started to compete even more internationally, starting with the BADMINTON ASIA YOUTH TEAM U19 CHAMPIONSHIPS 2014 and the YONEX GERMAN JUNIOR 2014. She also competed and at the Summer Youth Olympics in 2014, in Nanjing, China representing Korea, which is a huge honor for the young athlete. She continued to thrive in the junior tournaments in Korea, winning matches at the YONEX KOREA JUNIOR OPEN BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIPS 2015.
As the year goes by, Kim gets better and better. In 2016, she read he'd the final of the YONEX DUTCH JUNIOR 2016 in both singles and women’s doubles, and reached the semis at the YONEX GERMAN JUNIOR 2016. She also was very impressive at the PEMBANGUNAN JAYA RAYA YONEX SUNRISE JUNIOR GRAND PRIX 2016 (UNDER 19) where she won silver. At the BWF WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS EYE-LEVEL CUPS 2016 she won bronze in both singles and women’s doubles, before being defeated by Chinese players Chen Yufei in singles, and Du Yue/Xu Ya in the doubles. Nevertheless, these results are very impressive for the young player.
2018 became one of Kim’s best years as a badminton player, as she continued winning medals here and there. She won silver at the Lingshui China Masters, Irish Open, and Norwegian International. However, it was in India where she finally won her gold medal. At the Hyderabad Open, Kim defeated Hong Kong player Joy Xuan Deng 21-9, 18-21, 21-17 in over 50 minutes to win her title! A tough match but an incredible result.
In 2019 she continued to play in more tournaments worldwide like the Denmark, French, Macau Opens. At the U.S. Open, she reached the final and won silver. But, it was at the Lingshui China Masters where she won gold again, after winning silver last year. This time, she was able to defeat her opponent Zhang Yiman from China, 22-20, 14-21, 21-17 to win her second gold.
Kim Ga-eun is still competing in many tournaments last year and this year, and we’re so sure that she’ll continue to win more!