Lee So-hee and Baek Hana End Korea’s 24-Year Wait for Asian Games Doubles Gold
South Korea’s Lee So-hee and Baek Hana defeated the world’s top-ranked Chinese pair in three games to win the women’s doubles badminton title at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
South Korea’s Lee So-hee and Baek Hana won the women’s doubles badminton title at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Tuesday, ending the country’s 24-year wait for gold in the event.
The world No. 2 pair defeated China’s top-ranked Lin Shengshu and Tan Ning 26-28, 21-18, 21-18 at Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium, northwest of the main host city of Nagoya. The three-game victory gave Lee and Baek their first Asian Games gold medal as a team and restored South Korea to the top of the women’s doubles podium for the first time since 2002.
The final demanded an immediate recovery after an exceptionally tight opening game. Lee and Baek pushed their opponents beyond the standard 21-point target but lost the game 28-26. They responded by taking the second game 21-18 and then repeated that score in the deciding game to complete the comeback against the tournament’s highest-ranked pairing.
The result also represented a step forward from the previous Asian Games. Lee and Baek won silver at the 2023 edition after losing the final to China’s Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan. Three years later, they overcame another Chinese pair to secure the title that had eluded them.
Their victory made Lee and Baek the first South Korean women’s doubles team to win Asian Games gold since Ra Kyung-min and Lee Kyung-won accomplished the feat in 2002. That historical gap added significance to a result already notable for the ranking of the opponents and the pressure of a deciding game.
The gold also reinforces South Korea’s presence in a badminton discipline long shaped by intense regional competition. By beating the world No. 1 team after dropping the first game, Lee and Baek converted their experience from the previous final into the top prize in Ichinomiya.
For the pair, the title completes a progression from Asian Games silver to gold. For South Korea, it closes a drought that lasted more than two decades and adds a landmark result to the country’s campaign at the 2026 Games.