After beating rival Mori, she says: 'There's no one I can't beat now'

Lead's separation at LA Games raises Korea's first Olympic medal hopes

Seo Chae-hyun poses after winning the gold medal in the women's lead event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at the Nagoya International Exhibition Hall on Saturday. [Yonhap]
Seo Chae-hyun poses after winning the gold medal in the women's lead event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at the Nagoya International Exhibition Hall on Saturday. [Yonhap]

Seo Chae-hyun, South Korea's top female sport climber, claimed her first Asian Games gold medal and now sets her sights on an Olympic podium finish.

Speaking at a press conference Sunday at Korea House in Nagoya, Japan, on the sidelines of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, Seo said she had not expected an easy path to the title. "Recently I had lost to Mori Ai of Japan more often than I had beaten her, so I didn't think it would be easy," she said. "But after competing in this tournament, I feel there is no one I can't beat."

Seo topped the women's lead final Saturday at Nagoya Port Messe, becoming the only competitor among the eight finalists to reach the top hold and edging out her rival Mori for the title. The victory gave South Korea its first sport climbing gold in eight years, following Cheon Jong-won's men's combined win at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games.

Seo is the second Korean and the first Korean woman to win the event.

The gold was made all the more remarkable by the fact that Seo competed through a thumb injury. She hurt her thumb during preparations and had to tape it throughout warm-ups, removing the tape only briefly to compete.

"It wasn't easy mentally to compete while injured," she said. "After four days of competition, I was worn out both mentally and physically."

Seo said the Asian Games title has strengthened her resolve to pursue gold at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Her prospects there look brighter than ever: at the LA Games, bouldering, lead and speed will be contested as separate disciplines, giving her a cleaner shot at a medal in lead — her strongest event.

South Korea has yet to win an Olympic medal in sport climbing. Seo reached the final at both the 2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Games but finished eighth and sixth, respectively.

"If I keep preparing as carefully as I have been, finding areas to improve, I think the chances of winning a medal will be higher with lead as a separate event at the Olympics," she said.

Meanwhile, Seo also put to rest lingering disappointment from the Hangzhou Games, where the final was canceled due to heavy rain and she received a silver medal.

"At the time I felt wronged, but I got over it quickly," she said. "This time, with the disciplines separated, I thought it was a great opportunity to win two medals, so I focused entirely on this competition."

With Seo and Lee Do-hyun each collecting two medals at the Nagoya Games, South Korea's sport climbing program appears well-positioned for its first Olympic medal push.

Park Hee-yong, head coach of the national sport climbing team, who attended the press conference, acknowledged the near-misses at Tokyo and Paris. "We made the finals at Tokyo and Paris but struggled to win medals," he said. "At LA, we consider winning a medal our destiny, and we will work toward it."


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