Background and career
An Se-young (Korean: 안세영; Hanja: 安洗瑩; born 5 February 2002) is a South Korean badminton player, who won the gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in the women's singles event. She was named 2019's Most Promising Player of the Year and 2023's Female Player of the Year by the BWF. She won the gold medals at the 2023 and 2026 World Championships, making history as the first Korean women's singles player to win the World Championships title. She then clinched the women's singles gold medal at the 2022 and 2026 Asian Games. An was also a part of South Korea's gold medal winning teams at the 2022 and 2026 Uber Cup as well at the 2022 Asian Games.
In 2018, An was selected to join the national team and became the first junior high school student on the South Korean national team. She was part of the national junior team that won the mixed team title at the 2017 Asian Junior Championships. An later represented her country at the 2018 Uber Cup in Bangkok and Asian Games in Jakarta, helping the team win a bronze medal in the former event. In 2019, she clinched her first BWF World Tour title at the Super 300 New Zealand Open, beating the 2012 Olympic gold medalist Li Xuerui in the final.
