Ki Bo Bae: Career, Marriage & Net worth
Ki Bo Bae is a South Korean recurve archer who is one of the best archers in Korean archery history.
Ki Bo Bae is a three-time Olympic gold medalist and a bronze medalist as well.
She won four Olympic medals for her country in individual and team-based archery tournaments in the Olympics.
The gorgeous archer is widely known for her precise and accurate aims and is decorated as the best archer in the Olympics history.
And she is not just an archer but also a brand ambassador for “Wisdom for Change.”
It is an organization that helps refugees. She is truly a fantastic person in every aspect of her life.
Before we look deeper into her life, let’s take a quick look at some facts about her.
Quick Facts
| Full Name | Ki Bo Bae |
| Birth Date | February 20, 1988 |
| Birth Place | Anyang, South Korea |
| Nick Name | Bo Bae |
| Religion | Unknown |
| Nationality | South Korean |
| Ethnicity | Asian |
| Education | Gwangju Women’s University |
| Horoscope | Pisces |
| Father’s Name | Ki Dong-youn |
| Mother’s Name | Kim Nam-youn |
| Siblings | Unknown |
| Age | 36 Years Old |
| Height | 5 feet 6 inches |
| Weight | 120 lbs |
| Hair Color | Brown |
| Eye Color | Brown |
| Build | Athletic |
| Profession | Recurve Archer |
| Sport | Archery |
| Coach | Park Chae-soon |
| Active Years | 2010-present |
| Marital Status | Married |
| Husband | Sung Min-soo |
| Kids | None |
| Net Worth | $3 Million |
| Social Media | |
| Archery’s Equipment | Broadhead Wrench, Hunter Crossbow, Archery Target |
| Last Update | April, 2024 |
Ki Bo Bae: Height, Weight, and Physical Appearance
She is currently 36 Years Old and still doing wonders with her bow.
The Korean archer stands at 5 feet and 6 inches tall.
Similarly, she weighs about 120 lbs. She has a very athletic body which helps her to draw the bow with even more power.
Unfortunately, there isn’t any information about her body measurements, her shoe, and dress size.
She has brown eyes, which are complemented by her dark brown hair. She is an astonishing beauty despite being a very hard-working and sporty woman.
Honestly, she could start modeling, and brands will be behind her to make her their brand ambassador.
Ki Bo Bae: Nationality, Ethnicity, and Horoscope
Ki Bo Bae was born in Anyang, a big city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Thus she is a South Korean.
She belongs to the Asian Ancestry, as both of her parents are from South Korea as well.
Furthermore, she was born on February 20, which makes her a Pisces.
Pisces are known to be determined and creative; well, we can all agree or disagree on that after learning more about Bo Bae.
Ki Bo Bae: Early Life, Education, and Family
Ki Bo Bae was born on 1988 February 20th, in Anyang, South Korea, to her father, Ki Dong-youn, and mother, Kim Nam-youn.
There is no more information about her family except her father and mother’s name. It is unknown if she has a sibling or if she is the only child too.
She has not opened about how it was growing up for her. She likes to keep it personal.
As for her education, Ki is a graduate of Gwangju Women’s University.
And she is said to be pursuing her doctorate currently.
Ki Bo Bae: Career
The Korean beauty got interested in archery when she was just 11 years old.
When the other girls of the same age were playing with dolls, she was interested in the bow and arrow.
Her primary school offered archery lessons for kids, and that’s where the story of Ki Bo Bae began.
Debut
Bo Bae’s archery career officially began in 2010 when she joined the archery South Korea team.
She was ready for her first-ever international tournament. She attended the Asian Games 2010 in Guangzhou.
Unfortunately, Ki did not perform so well in her individual matches, and maybe it was the pressure and crowd getting to her.
She lost to Cheng Meng of China in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
But despite losing in the individual series, she didn’t let it bother her, and eventually, she won the gold medal in the team event alongside Joo Hyun-Jung and Yun Ok-hee.
The trio had to face the Chinese team in the finals, and the crowd was against them, but they managed to pull it off and grab the gold medal for South Korea.
The following year, Ki competed in the Archery world cup in all three individual, team, and mixed teams.
She succeeded in pulling off another win there and getting the gold medal for the team.
But unfortunately, she lost to Jung Dasomi in the finals of the individual event.
She got the silver medal there, and it was a very proud moment for her as that was her first-ever individual medal.
Ki Bo Bae, alongside her team, also managed to win the first-ever mixed team titles at the 2011 World Archery Championships.
That’s how her career started, and she was about to do wonders and break world records soon.
Taking two gold medals at her first-ever Olympics
The summer Olympics that was held in London in 2012 was Ki Bo’s first-ever Olympics debut.
She started in the preliminary rounds, where you need to shoot 72 arrows, and the maximum number of points you can score is 720 (10 points maximum for one arrow).
The Korean archer managed to score 671 points out of 720 and was declared the winner despite the other two players with the same score.
She was awarded first place because she had landed the most arrows in the center among the three.
Team Event Gold Medal
Later on in the tournament, the Korean team, which consisted of Ki Bo Bae, Lee Sung Jin, and Choi Hyeon Ju, moved on to the finals.
They were rivaled against the Chinese team, and they managed to pull off a close win against them and grabbed the first gold medal for themselves in the Olympics.
Furthermore, It was a very proud moment for all the Koreans as this was their seventh consecutive win in this event.
Individual Event Gold Medal
After winning her first Gold Medal, Ki Bo Bae was not going to stop, and she went on to win her second Olympic gold medal in the individual event.
She was matched against Aida Roman of Mexico in the finals, and it was a very close match.
Their score was tied, so the match was to be decided by a single-shot tiebreaker.
Aida took the first shot and scored an eight-point, and then Ki Bo Bae proceeded to shoot her and scored an eight-pointer.
But Ki Bo Bae was declared the winner as her arrow was near the board’s center point.
She was overjoyed and became the sole member of the Korean team who had won two gold medals at one Olympics. And not to forget, it was her Olympic debut as well.
After the event was over, Ki Bo Bae said one of the most renowned Korean archery quotes, “Korean do no shoot eights.”
Breaking world records
In the next year, Ki was all fired up for a new season, and that year, she won two gold medals at the World archery championships.
She won both the mixed and team championship but could not win the finals for the individual archery championships.
Missing out the whole year
The following year, she could not qualify for the national team in the Asian games because she was too relaxed and was not mentally focused when shooting her arrows.
Later on, In an interview, it was disclosed by Ki that her initial response for not qualifying for the Asian Games was of relief.
She felt like not qualifying for the tournament had freed her from her daily training routine, which was pretty hard on her.
Later on, when she watched the tournament on TV, she felt bad for taking it easy, and she was motivated more than ever to pick up the bow and arrow again and start training.
Due to her absence in archery events that year, she dropped down from her ranking of the first position.
When the next season began, she was all ready to compete and win some medals.
She ranked first in the qualifying rounds this year and proceeded to play for the Korean team once again.
Setting world records and going back to the top.
In the July of 2015, She set two new world records.
She scored 686 points total out of 720, which surpassed the previous record held by Park Sung-Hyun.
Park held that record for 11 years, and it finally came to an end with the hands of Ki Bo Bae.
In the same tournament, Ki Bo Bae broke another record alongside Kang Chae-young and Choi Mi-sun for most team events.
They scored a total of 2,038 points.
Then in the Individual event, she defeated her own teammate Choi to get the first position and her first individual gold medal in three years.
She then went on to win two more gold medals in the world archery championship that was held in Copenhagen.
Similarly, in the Individual event, she defeated Lin Shih-Chia to claim the gold medal again.
And with that victory, she was back on top of the World archery rankings.
Winning her third Olympic gold medal
Ki appeared in the Olympic games for a second time in 2016 for South Korea in Archery with many hopes on her back.
She was under massive pressure as she was one of the favorite contestants to win the individual event.
But before the individual event, it was time for the team event.
Continuing Korea’s seven consecutive wins, Ki, alongside her teammates, Choi Mi-sun and Chang Hye-jin, won the team event.
They won the team event by a considerable margin and made it Korea’s eighth consecutive win in the women’s team competition.
Soon after the team event, all eyes were on Ki Bo Bae, but unfortunately, Ki lost in the individual tournament’s semi-finals against Change Hye Jin.
It was a great upset for everybody as they wanted to see Ki Bo Bae win the gold medal and put her name on the history books.
But sadly, she lost; however, she managed to win the game for third place and got a bronze medal.
After the end of the Olympic games, Ki won her second archery world cup title, and the following year, she won again and became the first woman to win the archery world cup three times in a row.
Ki Bo Bae: Marriage
After winning her second archery world cup in Rome, she was asked the most embarrassing thing a fan asked her in an interview.
She replied, saying that many fans ask her about her marriage and ask her to marry them.
Well, Ki was not going to do that as she already had someone else in her mind with whom she wanted to spend her whole life.
She was never very open about her love life, and in 2017, she suddenly announced her marriage date.
Everyone was shocked but happy for her, and she announced her soon-to-be husband, Sung Min Soo.
They tied their knot on November 18, 2017, and are happily married ever after.
She has not revealed much about her marriage life as of now, and she will probably keep it that way in the future.
Ki Bo Bae: Draw Weight and Archery Equipment
Draw weight is the weight of the bow.
Ki Bo Bae uses a draw weight of around 35-45 lbs, approximately 15-20 kgs.
That is the suggested amount of draw weight for any woman archer, and trying to extend the draw weights can also lead to injuries to the muscles.
There is not much information about what kind of archery equipment Ki Bo Bae used early in her career. But the most recent one was noted in 2017.
It consisted of Beiter out Knot in red tungsten points and spin wings arrows.
Shibuya ultimate (pink accents) standard Shibuya sight pen as her base sight.
AAE finger tab, WINwin hmC plus stabilizer with different accessories like Beiter plunger in Black and standard plunger of 25.5-29.5.
She used the Hoyts Epic bow, renowned for its built alongside the Inno EX prime limbs attached to it.
Ki Bo Bae: Net Worth
Ki Bo Bae has won many tournaments throughout the long span of her career.
She also earned from different sponsorships as well.
“Ki Bo Bae has the net worth of $3 Million”
That number seems quite ok as she has been earning through all those tournaments.
Despite having a lot of money, she cares a lot about disabled people.
Recently, she also became the brand ambassador of an NGO named “Wisdom for change.
She is also planning on teaching archery to children with disabilities.
One of her biggest goals is to become an international Olympic committee member to help Korea host another Olympic game.
Ki Bo Bae: Social Media
Ki Bo Bae is not really into social media as she wants to keep her life personal, but she has an official Facebook page despite being a private person.
She managed to get a large following of 15K followers.
She is not available on any other social media platform.
FAQs
When did Ki Bo Bae start competing in archery tournaments?
She started competing when she was just in grade four.
What did Ki Bo Bae in the 2018 Winter Olympics?
Ki acted as a torchbearer in the 2018 winter Olympics.
Who coached Ki Bo Bae?
Park Chae-soon coached Ki Bo Bae.
