Kim began fencing at age 13 as a foil fencer, but converted to sabre in high school at age 16 in 2004. Although she first became a member of the South Korean national fencing team at the age of 18 in 2006, Kim was often overshadowed by fellow sabre fencers Kim Hye-lim, Lee Shin-mi and Kim Keum-hwa, omitted from the final national squad before becoming a fixture in the 2011 season. Kim began to garner international attention at the 2011 Summer Universiade where she won the bronze medal in the women's individual sabre fencing. In the semifinals, Kim lost to two-time European champion and eventual gold medalistOlha Kharlan of Ukraine 15-10. She accumulated another bronze medal in the women's team sabre as a member of Team South Korea. Kim finished the 2011 season as her first full-time member of the national team, and her FIE ranking rose from 174 to 11. In February 2012, Kim reached the semifinals at the OrléansGrand Prix, her first international tournament of the 2012 season. Next month, Kim reached her first individual sabre final at the Antalya World Cup in Turkey. In May 2012, Kim became a semi-finalist at the Bologna World Cup in Italy and the Tianjin Grand Prix in China in a row. Her success in these tournaments increased her FIE ranking to 5th before the start of the 2012 Olympics.
2012 Olympics
Kim competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London capturing the gold medal in the women's individual sabre event. This was South Korea's second Olympic gold medal in fencing, Kim Young-ho having won the men's foil Gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Kim reached the final when she defeated two-time Olympic individual sabre champion Mariel Zagunis 15–13 in the semifinal match. Largely regarded as the underdog by both competitors and her teammates, she came back from a 12–5 deficit against Zagunis to advance into the finals. Kim beat Russia's Sofya Velikaya, the reigning world champion, 15–9 in the gold medal match. Kim asserted her dominance early in the contest, with her opponent having little say in the outcome of the first period with an 8–5 triumph for Kim. Velikaya struggled to recover from the setback and the second period followed in much the same way as the first as Kim won 7–4 to win the gold medal.
