Oh Sang-uk

Oh Sang-uk
Born	(1996-09-30) 30 September 1996 (age 25) Daejeon, South Korea
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Sport
Country	South Korea
Sport	Fencing
Weapon	Sabre
Hand	right-handed
Club	Daejeon City
Head coach	Kim Hyung-Yeol
FIE ranking	current ranking
Medal record Olympic Games 2020 Tokyo Team World Championships 2017 Leipzig Team 2018 Wuxi Team 2019 Budapest Individual 2019 Budapest Team Asian Games 2018 Jakarta Team 2018 Jakarta Individual Asian Championships 2016 Wuxi Team 2017 Hong Kong Team 2019 Chiba Individual 2019 Chiba Team 2018 Bangkok Team Universiade 2017 Taipei Team 2019 Naples Individual 2019 Naples Team

Oh Sang-uk (born 30 September 1996) is a South Korean right-handed sabre fencer.^[1]

Oh is a three-time team Asian champion, 2019 individual Asian champion, three-time team world champion, and 2019 individual world champion. His first Olympics was the 2020 edition, in which he won gold in the team event.

Early life[]

Oh followed his older brother into fencing and joined his middle school's fencing team.^[2][3] A native of Daejeon, he attended Songchon High School, known as a high school fencing powerhouse in the region, and began representing the national team in the youth categories. During his senior year, he won gold in the individual sabre event at the national high school championships and his high school team won in the team event.^[4]

Career[]

Oh had been a stand-out in the junior and cadet categories and quickly drew attention for defeating then-ranked world number 1 and 2012 Olympic team gold medalist Gu Bon-gil in the Round of 16 of the 2015 National Championships.^[2] He was earmarked as a successor to Kim Jung-hwan, whom he idolized in high school and who was speculated to be retiring after the 2016 Olympics, due to their similar aggressive style of play and agility.^[5] While he did not make it to the final, he was ranked high enough to qualify for the senior national team, a rarity for a teenager as fencers were generally selected for the national team while in college. At that time, the men's sabre team went through a generational change with the retirements of 2012 Olympic team gold medalists Oh Eun-seok and Won Woo-young. The nineteen-year-old was added into the team with Kim Jun-ho, joining veterans Kim Jung-hwan and Gu Bon-gil for the 2016 Asian Championships. He won his first ever gold medal in a major international tournament when they won the team gold.

Due the now-abolished rotation system, there was no men's team sabre event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Oh did not rank high enough to qualify for the individual event. He won a team gold with the same team at the World Championships and Asian Championships in 2017 and the World Championships and Asian Games in 2018.^[6] In the Asian Games, he reached the final of the individual event and was defeated by Gu, taking silver. However, his gold medal in the team event meant that he was exempted from mandatory military service.^[7] Kim Jung-hwan retired from the national team after the Asian Games and was replaced by Ha Han-sol.

Oh won four gold medals in 2019, winning in both the team and individual events at the World Championships and Asian Championships. Kim Jung-hwan came out of retirement and the team which swept gold for two consecutive years at the Worlds was reunited again and qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics, which was postponed for a year. He was nearly unable to participate as he contracted COVID-19 several months prior to the Olympics and then sustained an ankle injury during pre-competition training.^[8][9]

Oh went into the Olympics ranked world number 1, thus earning a spot in the individual event. However, he lost to Sandro Bazadze in the quarter-finals.^[3] He won his first Olympic medal when they won gold in the team event.^[10] In the team semi-finals, he scored the last point in a narrow 45–42 win over Germany, sending the South Koreans to the final for a second consecutive time.^[11] During the final against Italy, with the score at 40–21 to South Korea, Oh nearly conceded their lead but managed to score the final five points to win 45–26, the exact same score in the final nine years prior.^[8]

Medal Record[]

Olympic Games[]

Year	Location	Event	Position
2021	Tokyo, Japan	Team Men's Sabre	1st[12]

World Championship[]

Year	Location	Event	Position
2017	Leipzig, Germany	Team Men's Sabre	1st[13]
2018	Wuxi, China	Team Men's Sabre	1st[14]
2019	Budapest, Hungary	Individual Men's Sabre	1st[15]
2019	Budapest, Hungary	Team Men's Sabre	1st[16]

Asian Championship[]

Year	Location	Event	Position
2016	Wuxi, China	Team Men's Sabre	1st[17]
2017	Hong Kong, China	Team Men's Sabre	1st[18]
2018	Bangkok, Thailand	Team Men's Sabre	3rd[19]
2019	Tokyo, Japan	Individual Men's Sabre	1st[20]
2019	Tokyo, Japan	Team Men's Sabre	1st[21]

Grand Prix[]

Date	Location	Event	Position
12/15/2017	Cancún, Mexico	Individual Men's Sabre	1st[22]
05/11/2018	Moscow, Russia	Individual Men's Sabre	1st[23]
02/22/2019	Cairo, Egypt	Individual Men's Sabre	1st[24]
04/26/2019	Seoul, South Korea	Individual Men's Sabre	1st[25]
11/11/2021	Orleans, France	Individual Men's Sabre	3rd[26]

World Cup[]

Date	Location	Event	Position
01/30/2015	Padua, Italy	Individual Men's Sabre	3rd[27]
12/02/2016	Győr, Hungary	Individual Men's Sabre	1st[28]
02/03/2017	Padua, Italy	Individual Men's Sabre	3rd[29]
12/01/2017	Győr, Hungary	Individual Men's Sabre	1st[30]
05/18/2018	Madrid, Spain	Individual Men's Sabre	3rd[31]
11/16/2018	Algier, Algeria	Individual Men's Sabre	3rd[32]
02/01/2019	Warsaw, Poland	Individual Men's Sabre	3rd[33]
03/22/2019	Budapest, Hungary	Individual Men's Sabre	2nd[34]
05/10/2019	Madrid, Spain	Individual Men's Sabre	3rd[35]
02/21/2020	Warsaw, Poland	Individual Men's Sabre	3rd[36]
03/06/2020	Luxembourg	Individual Men's Sabre	3rd[37]
11/03/2021	Budapest, Hungary	Individual Men's Sabre	1st[38]

Personal life[]

Oh is in a relationship with foil fencer Hong Hyo-jin, who is 2 years older than him.^[39][5]

Oh attended Daejeon University, known for its fencing team, on a scholarship and graduated in 2019.^[40][41]

Filmography[]

Television shows[]

References[]

External links[]

• Oh Sang-uk at the International Fencing Federation