| Kim Kum-yong | |
| Native Name: | 김금영 |
| Native Name Lang: | Korean |
| Birth Date: | 17 August 2001 |
| Birth Place: | Pyongyang, North Korea |
| Playingstyle: | Left-handed, shakehand grip |
| Show-Medals: | yes |
Kim Kum-yong (; born 17 August 2001) is a North Korean table tennis player. She qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics and won a silver medal in the mixed doubles tournament along with Ri Jong-sik.
Kim was born on 17 August 2001 in Pyongyang, North Korea.[1] She is left-handed and uses the shakehand grip in table tennis.[2] She participated in her first two international competitions at the DPR Korea Open in 2018 and the Pyongyang Open in 2019.[3] She played at the 2019 Asian Junior and Cadet Table Tennis Championships and won the silver medal in the girls' team event; later that year, she competed in the World Junior Table Tennis Championships.[4]
Starting in 2020, North Korean players stopped competing internationally for three years, returning for the 2022 Asian Games (held in 2023), where Kim competed in four events, but did not win a medal.[3] [5] In April 2024, Kim and her mixed doubles partner Ri Jong-sik qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics by defeating Spain in the ITTF World Olympic Qualification Tournament, 4–3.[6]
Kim and Ri, unranked by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) due to their limited experience in international competitions, were the last-ranked team in the Olympic mixed doubles competition and faced defending champion Japan – ranked second globally – in the opening round.[7] [8] In a major upset, the North Korean pair defeated Japan by a score of 4–1.[7] [9] The pair followed it up by defeating eighth-seeded Sweden and then fourth-seeded Hong Kong to reach the tournament finals against China.[8] [10] They were defeated in the finals, 4–2, and thus received the silver medal, becoming the first Olympic medal-winners from North Korea in eight years.[11] [12] After the tournament, the pair, having previously avoided the media, briefly answered questions at a press conference, with Kim noting that "We prepared a lot for the Olympics. We had a good performance but there are some regrets. We'll do better next time to win the gold."
Kim is noted for using a rare type of table tennis racket, featuring long pimpled rubber on the backside, which Reuters stated "caught many top players off guard" at the Olympics.[13] Swedish player Kristian Karlsson noted that "Her serve gave me a lot of trouble. Some of them looked easy, but I missed them. The rubber she uses is very unusual among female players and almost nonexistent among male players."