The breakthrough yearThe year he turned 18, he came through the final national team trials and became the first male high schooler picked for the Asian Games, and in November he won gold at men’s 63 kg in taekwondo at the Guangzhou Asian Games.
In 2011, he won his first World Championships gold at the Gyeongju World Taekwondo Championships and also reached No. 1 in the world rankings. In 2012, he won the Asian Championships and then reached the Olympic final in London and took silver.
In 2013, he won the Puebla World Championships despite a broken nose for a second straight title. In 2014, he won the Incheon Asian Games for a second straight Asian Games title.
In 2015, he won the World Grand Prix Final and secured a place at the Rio Olympics. In 2016, he won bronze at the Rio Olympics for a second straight Olympic medal, a first for a Korean male taekwondo athlete.
In 2017, he won a third World Championships gold in Muju and was named athlete of the year at the Gala Awards for a third time. In 2018, he won the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games for the first three straight Asian Games taekwondo titles. Later that year he added a fourth straight World Grand Prix Final title and the Cheongnyong Medal of the Order of Sport Merit.
In 2019, he won bronze at the Manchester World Championships and a fifth straight World Grand Prix Final title. In 2020, his place on the Tokyo Olympic team was confirmed, his third Olympics. In 2021, he finished the Tokyo Olympics without a medal and said he would end his career as an athlete with these Games, closing 12 years on the national team.
In 2022, he was named the Korea Taekwondo Association’s special athlete of the year for 2021. In 2023, he began coaching at Daejeon City Hall and was also elected to the World Taekwondo athletes’ committee.
In 2024, he worked as a taekwondo commentator on MBC’s Paris Olympics coverage. In 2025, he was appointed full-time professor in the taekwondo department at Dong-A University. In 2026, he joined the U.S. taekwondo team as a coach to prepare for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Lee Dae-hoon (born Feb 5, 1992) was first picked for the taekwondo national team on Apr 21, 2010, the year he turned 18, and became known the same year with Asian Games gold in Guangzhou on Nov 19, 2010. In 2012, the year he turned 20, he won his first Olympic medal, silver in London, and in 2018, the year he turned 26, he won a third straight Asian Games title.
Ages are by calendar year (the year minus the birth year), birthdays aside.