"Kim Yeon-koung, So Excellent That People Call Her Beautiful"... Tops Twitter's 'Most Influential Woman in Sports'

Surpassing Even Simone Biles, Selected by Time as Sports Athlete of the Year

After winning against Turkey in the women's volleyball quarterfinals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Kim Yeon-koung cheers / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Juhyung] Professional volleyball player Kim Yeon-koung (33, Shanghai Guangming) has been analyzed as the most mentioned female athlete across all sports on global social networking services (SNS).

According to the '2021 Keyword Statistics' released by the SNS platform 'Twitter,' Kim Yeon-koung ranked first in the female athlete category this year. She surpassed Simone Biles (24, USA), a gymnast who was selected by the American magazine 'Time' as one of the '100 Most Influential People in the World.' Biles took second place, following Kim Yeon-koung.

In this regard, the Italian volleyball media 'Pallavolo Magazine' stated on the 18th (local time), "Kim Yeon-koung is the most mentioned female athlete on Twitter this year," adding, "Her popularity in Asia is especially tremendous. Her individual and team career is so excellent that people say it is beautiful."

Kim Yeon-kyung ranked first in the world for the highest number of tweets on the global SNS platform 'Twitter,' surpassing American gymnast Simone Biles. / Photo by Twitter

This is not the first time Kim Yeon-koung has gained overwhelming popularity among netizens. During the '2020 Tokyo Olympics' (July 23 - August 8), Kim Yeon-koung ranked 4th in the Twitter global trend among all male and female Olympic participants. When limited to the single sport of volleyball, she was recorded as the most popular athlete, proving her international influence.

At the Tokyo Olympics, Kim Yeon-koung served as the captain of the South Korean women's volleyball team. The women's volleyball team defeated Turkey, ranked 4th in the world, the Dominican Republic, ranked 7th, and Japan, ranked 9th, achieving the second-best result in history by finishing 4th in the world.

During the women's volleyball finals at the Tokyo Olympics, Kim Yeon-koung also recorded high achievements: 2nd in scoring, 4th in spike efficiency, and 4th in digs per game. She later announced her retirement from the national team.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.