In 2004, the year she turned 16, she won the women’s team event at the World Junior Archery Championships in England and made her international debut. In 2008 she won both the individual and team events at the World University Archery Championships in Taiwan without having made the national team at home.
In 2010 she won women’s team gold at the Guangzhou Asian Games for the Gwangju Metropolitan City Hall team. She was the youngest on the national team. By mid-2011 she was No. 1 in the world rankings, and in August she won the individual, team and mixed events at the Shenzhen Universiade for three golds.
The breakthrough yearThe year she turned 24, she won women’s team gold at the London Olympics and also won the individual event for two golds.
In 2013 she won the women’s team and mixed events at the World Championships for two golds. In 2014 she was eliminated from the Incheon Asian Games trials, and in September she debuted as a KBS archery commentator. In 2015 she set a world record in the ranking round at the Gwangju Universiade and won both the individual and mixed events at the World Championships in Copenhagen.
In 2016 she kept Korea’s women’s team gold at the Rio Olympics for an eighth straight time and won individual bronze. In September 2017 she won a second straight World Cup Final title and first revealed her marriage plans, and in October she received the Cheongnyong Medal of the Order of Sports Merit. She married in November and won team gold at the Asian Championships in Dhaka.
In 2018 she entered the 2019 national team trials while pregnant and withdrew, and on Dec. 31 she gave birth to her first daughter. In 2021 she was a KBS commentator for archery at the Tokyo Olympics. In 2022 she received a doctorate in physical education from Chosun University.
In 2023 she finished eighth in the national team trials and returned to the national team after six years. The year she turned 36, in February, she held a retirement press conference to end a 27-year career, and in March she became a professor at her alma mater, Gwangju Women’s University.
In 2025 she appeared on a TV Chosun variety show that showed her second natural birth. In 2026 she made her soccer debut on SBS’s Kick a Goal, prepared to commentate on the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games for KBS, and volunteered as an archery instructor for young people in Gapyeong.
Ki Bo-bae (born Feb 20, 1988) made her international debut by winning the team event at the World Junior Archery Championships on Jul 24, 2004, the year she turned 16, and became known on Aug 2, 2012, the year she turned 24, when she won individual gold at the London Olympics for two golds in all. She ended a 27-year career in 2024, the year she turned 36.
Ages are by calendar year (the year minus the birth year), birthdays aside.