Kim Yeon-koung

At 36 years old, Kim Yeon-koung has this physical status:

Kim Yeon-Koung was born in Ansan and started volleyball in 4th grade, initially inspired by her oldest sister who was a volleyball player. In middle school, because she was less than 170 cm (5'7"), she considered quitting volleyball and becoming a soccer player. Fortunately, during her three years at Hanil Women's High School, she grew more than 20 cm, and moved her position to an outsider hitter from her initial position of a setter and libero.

She received the spotlight of the Korean media due to her outstanding physical condition and performance in the high school stage. As a result, she was selected in the national team in 2005. She made her international debut at the World Grand Champions Cup, where she ranked as 3rd best scorer. Afterwards, she was selected as the first choice in the first round of the V-League draft by the Cheonan Heungkuk Life, where she started her professional volleyball career.

During her first professional season, Kim contributed to Heungkuk Life becoming the champions of the Korean League. She received every award available, including the 'New Face Award', 'Regular Season MVP', 'Final Championship MVP', 'Best Scorer', 'Best Spiker', and 'Best Server'. However, she had to receive surgery in her right knee afterwards. Before fully recovering from the surgery, she participated in the 2006 World Championship and 2006 Asian Games. Mid-competition, she suffered from serious feet pain as an aftereffect of the surgery.

Heungkuk Life became the reigning champion of the 2006–07 season with the help of Kim. The team achieved the feat of being 1st place in the regular season and winning the finals for two years in a row. Kim was selected as the MVP for both the regular season and championship, and was also the best spiker of the regular season. Immediately afterwards, she again received articular cartilage surgery. After a few months of recovery, she participated in the World Cup and played full-time.

While she contributed to her team finishing 1st place in the 2007–08 regular season, thus receiving the MVP, her team was defeated by GS Caltex in the finals. She finished the season with the highest success rate yet of 47.59%, becoming best spiker of the league for three consecutive seasons. She received another knee surgery soon after, forcing her to miss the Olympic Qualification for the Beijing Olympics. South Korea was not qualified as a result.

In the 2008–09 season, she became the first female player of the Korean V-League with the record of scoring 2000 points and 2000 attack points. Despite her ground-breaking performance, Heungkuk Life had a difficult season with the replacement of head coach Hyeon-Ju Hwang, finishing 3rd for the regular season. However, the team had a successful post-season performance and won the final championship against GS Caltex. Kim's outstanding performance led to her claiming her third MVP title.

Kim signed a contract to play overseas in the Japanese V.Premier League with JT Marvelous, becoming South Korea's first professional volleyball player to play overseas after KOVO was founded in 2005. Heungkuk Life and JT Marvelous agreed on a two-year loan agreement for the player with the possibility of a one-year extension negotiated after the first season.

With Kim as the main attacking weapon of the team, JT, which were ninth out of 10 teams in the previous season, achieved a miraculous record in the 2009–10 regular season with a winning streak for 25 games, which is second highest record after NEC Red Rockets's 31 winning streak in 2001. Kim was best scorer of the regular season with 696 points in total, leading JT to end first place in the regular season. In the championship final, the team suffered a stunning loss against Toray Arrows. Kim was voted for the 'Fighting Spirit Award' and 'Best 6'.

During the off-season, Kim participated in the KOVO Cup in August as she was still registered for Heungkuk Life, and she led the team to victory as MVP. In September, she was part of the national team roster during the 2010 Asian Cup and became best scorer and best spiker of the tournament. Then she played at the 2010 World Championship where the team finished 13th place and 2010 Asian Games, winning a silver medal, the first medal in her career.

Despite Heungkuk Life's faltering results since Kim left, the team agreed on a loan deal with JT to let Kim play for another year, guaranteeing top-level treatment. She again led her team to becoming first place of 2010–11 regular season. Due to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, V.Premier League ended early. JT Marvelous assumed the champion title as a result and Kim was named MVP and 'Best 6'. JT Marvelous also became the champions of the Kurowashiki Tournament, and Kim was again voted as 'Best 6'. She then participated in the Grand Prix, Asian Championship, and World Cup. She was the best scorer and best spiker of the 2011 Asian Championship.

After the 2012 London Olympics, Kim had a dispute over her Free Agent Status with her previous Korean team Heungkuk Life. Kim and her agency claimed that she was a free agent, while Heungkuk claimed that she was still tied to the club as a player on loan, citing that she played in the Korean League for four seasons, two seasons short of the qualification as stipulated by the Korea Volleyball Association regulations. Kim countered that she had completed all six seasons with Heungkuk, noting that she played four seasons in Korea, two on loan at JT Marvelous and one on loan at Fenerbahçe.

Despite repeated attempts, the two sides failed to come to an agreement on Kim's status. Another spark started in 2013 when Heungkuk sent the official document explaining the issues between Kim and the team to the association, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korea Sports Council and Korean Volleyball Federation. In that document, Heungkuk accused Kim of mispresenting the truth and using false arguments.

Kim and her agent hit back by saying the document had libelous statements and called it improper while both sides were still trying to solve the problem. They also explained that her contract with Heungkuk was terminated on 30 June 2012.

At a news conference, Kim threatened to retire from the national team if her questions were not answered. Kim made three major demands for Heungkuk, KVA and KOVO: to inquire anew to FIVB whether she has a team she originally belongs to; answer her request for issuance of an agreement of consent on her international transfer she submitted; and answer her appeal against the July 2 public disclosure of her as a "player who randomly bolted her team."

On September 6, 2013, FIVB sent documents with its final decision on the issue to KVA, Heungkuk, Fenerbahçe and the Turkish Federation. The essence of the decision is the following:

FIVB explained that a local free agent rule of KOVO can not be applied to an international transfer, and in the case of the latter, FIVB regulations should be respected. If a Korean club has no proper contract with a specific expiration date, a player can freely sign with other clubs abroad regardless of free agent status. Heungkuk protested this decision, saying Fenerbahçe had lobbied FIVB to decide in favor of them. Kim's agency Inspokorea hit back on the alleged unofficial lobbying in a statement, urging Heungkuk to respect FIVB's decision.

José Roberto Guimarães persuaded the team president to bring Kim to Fenerbahçe for the 2011-12 season. He later recalls that he saw potential in her to become "one of the best players in the world" despite being relatively unknown in Europe.

She showed a phenomenal performance in her first season playing in Europe, as she helped Fenerbahçe claim their first CEV Champions League champion title. She was awarded best scorer and MVP of the tournament, and was first in both serving and attacking as well.

After her performance against Dinamo Kazan, Alexandre Jioshvili said in an interview with L'Équipe that Kim was the "future Michael Jordan of volleyball", with great skills in both offense and defense.

According to FIVB, she was regarded as the best volleyball player in the world by multiple journalists and coaches alike. One of the journalists asked Kim's opinion on who she considered second best after herself, who is "considered the best attacker in the world." At London 2012, she continued her ground-breaking performance. During the game against Serbia, Kim scored 34 points single-handedly, while her teammates scored 36 points in total. Zoran Terzić reflected that the team had "a lot of problems to make blocks and defend against her," who is "one of the best players in the world, no doubts about it."

For the rest of the tournament, she continued her scoring streak, showing notable performances in the game against Brazil in the preliminary round where Korea won 3-0, and semi-finals against Italy where Korea won 3-1. Korea lost to Japan in the final Bronze Medal Match, despite Kim scoring 22 points with a 47.22% efficiency rate. She was selected as Most Valuable Player of the tournament, becoming the 3rd MVP with no medal after Cintha Boersma and Barbara Jelic. After being named as the MVP of the 2012 London Olympics, Kim was also selected as one of the FIVB Heroes, which is an official campaign of the FIVB to raise awareness about the players' athletic achievements and to increase the worldwide interest in the sport.

Kim had a difficult time in the 2012–13 season due to her dispute with former team Heungkuk Life and her physical injuries. She decided not to have surgery for her right knee after tearing her meniscus during the match against Brazil in the Olympics. Despite such hardships, she was at the top of the statistical leaderboard in terms of scoring, attacking, and serving in the 2013 CEV Cup, continuing to show top performance. The team ultimately lost against Muszyna in the finals. Fenerbahçe finished 4th place for the Turkish League as well, and this became the only season of Kim's professional volleyball life where she finished without winning a single cup. She then participated in the 2013 Asian Championship where she was best scorer and best server.

In the 2014 World Grand Prix, Kim topped the best score record of the tournament by scoring 42 points in the game against Russia, where South Korea won 3-1. During this tournament, Giovanni Guidetti hailed Kim as the world's best.

In 2016, Kim was selected as a member of the FIVB Athletes' Commission, which is a group that works as a "link between volleyball players and FIVB". According to FIVB , Kim, being an "MVP at the 2012 London Olympic Game, is a fan's favourite all around the world," thus confirmed by the organization as a member of the Athletes Commission.

During the 2016 Olympic World Qualification Tournament, Kim showed outstanding performance against Netherlands, helping Korea win 3-0. Netherlands head coach Giovanni Guidetti was left in awe, just like two years ago.

Kim was selected as best outside spiker of the tournament. At the actual Olympic Tournament two months later, the team finished in 5th place after losing to the Netherlands in the semi-finals. Contrary to her original plans of quitting the National Team after Rio, she said in an interview that she was willing to continue until Tokyo 2020.

Kim ended her contract with Fenerbahçe where she had spent the past six seasons, and moved to Shanghai. She led Shanghai to first place for the 2017-18 regular season, a feat achieved in 17 years for the team. After finishing runners-up in the finals, she received the Best Foreign Player Award.

After one year in the Chinese League, she returned to Turkey and made a two year contract with Eczacıbaşı. The team won the Turkish Cup for the first time in seven years, as well as the Super Cup. For the 2019-20 season, she became the new captain of Eczacıbaşı, filling in Jordan Larson's place.

Kim played a decisive role in securing a ticket to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the Asian Continental Qualifiers held in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. The exhaustion built up from the Turkish League had led to abdominal pain during the match against Kazakhstan in the pool stage. She was diagnosed with a torn abdominal muscle and missed the semifinal match against Chinese Taipei. However, the captain reappeared in the final match against Thailand and was brilliant in the win that secured a Tokyo berth to her team. After the game, she admitted that she did not feel well and that she played after previously taking painkillers.

After Kim's contract ended with Eczacıbaşı, various media sources reported on the possibility of her going to Beijing, or returning to Korea in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, Kim Yeon-kyung signed a contract with Shanghai, China, where she shared the 2017-2018 season.

Club career

FIVB Volleyball Club World Championship

CEV Champions League

CEV Cup

Korean V-League

Japanese V.Premier League

Turkish League

Chinese Super League

KOVO Cup

Kurowashiki All Japan Volleyball Tournament

/ Korea-Japan Top Match

Turkish Volleyball Cup

Turkish Super Cup

National team career

The following were Not Awarded:

The following were Awarded:

Source

• 2009 DongA Sports – "Grand Prize in Professional Volleyball"
• 2012 MBN Women's Sports Category – "May MVP"
• 2017 Korean National Council of Women – "Woman of the Year"
• 2017 Brand of the Year Korea – "Athlete of the Year"
• 2020 MBN Women's Sport - "Grand Prize"
• 2021 Pony Chung Foundation - "Young Leader Award"
• 2021 Korea National Brand Award Grand Prize – "Sports Sector"
• 19th Citi-YWCA Korean Women's Leadership Award – "Special Award" (2021)