It’s not uncommon for sports to run in the family. Nelly Korda’s dad, Petr, for example, was a prominent tennis player, as was her mom, Regina, who competed in the 1988 Olympics in the sport.
Ben An, among the 60-man field in golf at the 2024 Olympics, has two sporting parents as well. His dad, Ahn Jae-Hyung, competed for Korea in the 1988 Games, winning a bronze in table tennis, and his mom, Jiao Zhimin, was there as well at the same games, held in Seoul, South Korea. She took home silver and bronze, also in table tennis.
“It’s always been my dream to win a medal in the Olympics, and I’ve probably watched the Olympics more than any other golfers, than anybody else growing up I guess, my parents being Olympians,” he said, before adding that he’d like to one-up them both by winning the top prize.
“Hopefully I get some kind of medal, hopefully gold because they never had a gold,” he said.
His parents were married in Sweden prior to Korea and China having diplomatic ties. An moved to the U.S. with his dad in 2005 while his mom, who also hosts a sports talk show in China, stayed back to work to support the family. As for the medals, An says he’s only seen them “once in my life, I think. I was 11 years old I think. It was in the States, so I think I remember seeing them once or twice, and then I haven’t seen it since.”
An is in Paris alongside fellow Korean Tom Kim, an Olympics first-timer. Golf in the Summer Games is a 72-hole, stroke-play event, so both golfers have a chance to medal.
“We’ve never had a Korean golfer win a medal, so I think it would be very big to put one of our names on that history as part of it,” An said. “If one of us can have a gold medal and put ourselves up there on the podium it would be good for our country.
“It would be huge for not only our country but golf in Asia, I think if we can somehow do something like that would be very big.”
The golf competition starts Thursday, and there’s practice rounds before that, but perhaps when it’s over, An and Kim will be able to root on their fellow Koreans in some other sports in Paris.
“It would probably be just whatever sport it is, just one of our countrymen contending for a medal, I think that would be really, really cool. It would be really inspiring,” he said. “As players, when you see other players achieve something really, really cool for their country it almost inspires you. Hopefully before the weekend, we would be able to experience that.”
