Meet some K-pop idols who, before dominating the stage, were also professional athletes in different sports
Being a K-pop idol is not easy at all. Since before debuting, artists have had to face exhausting routines of rehearsals, presentations, travel, recordings and meetings with fans, in addition to maintaining energy to be able to perform their elaborate choreographies, while singing at the same time.
Therefore, many stars rely on physical exercise to maintain the necessary stamina. However, some names in the industry are already used to performing high-performance activities, having been athletes before pursuing a career on stage.
With that in mind, RECREIO separated five K-pop idols who were once athletes and maybe you didn’t know!
1. Seungyoon (WINNER)
Before becoming leader of WINNER, Seungyoon He was a professional billiards athlete (a sport also called snooker in some parts of Brazil). Yoon He learned to play when he was in high school, training with the Professional Billiards Association, where he won the Korean National Sports Festival in Busan.
Reminder that Kang Seungyoon was a regional billiard representative when he was still an active athlete, before he became a singer and he could have gone actual pro had he pursued it.
I think we can all agree that he looks the sexiest when he plays… A THREAD. @official_yoon_pic.twitter.com/lRqUObaKa1
— 🍀 (@hwanaejimaa) May 1, 2021
2. Sunghoon (ENHYPEN)
Called by fans and members as the “Prince of Figure Skating”, Sunghoonof ENHYPEN, was an ice skating athlete for 10 years, as reported by AllKpop, and was preparing for the Olympics before deciding to become an idol. Among his main achievements are the silver medal at the Korean National Sports Festival in Busan, in addition to gold medals at the 2015 Lombardy Trophy in Italy and the 2015 Asian Open Trophy.
3. Yohan (WEi)
Yohan, from Wei, trained taekwondo for 13 years, winning the Korean National Sports Festival twice. Thanks to his enormous skill in the sport, he won a scholarship to university, however, he had to abandon martial arts after suffering a leg injury. It was after the incident that he decided to become an idol.
4. WOODZ (Soloist)
WOODZour Luizinho, was almost a professional football player. When he was little, he had the dream of becoming a professional in sport, and decided to live in Brazil to perfect his skills, training at the Corinthians base, in São Paulo, for two years. While here, he quelled his homesickness by listening to K-pop songs, which helped spark his desire to pursue a career in music.
5. Jackson Wang (GOT7)
Jackson, from GOT7, comes from a family of sportsmen. His mother is a former gymnast while his father is a fencing coach. Therefore, when he was little, he trained in gymnastics, before deciding to focus on fencing, where he showed great talent, becoming a youth Olympic-level saber fencer in the official Hong Kong junior team.
Furthermore, Jackson He was responsible for representing China at the First Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010, finishing 11th in the world. Before deciding to become a trainee in South Korea, he was training to compete at the 2012 London Olympics.
Source: Recreio
