Another competition, another highlight reel.
The Olympic Champion, World Number 1, Non-Forgiver, Oh Sanguk 오상욱 has attended his Third competition since the 2024 Paris Olympics, finishing Top 8 at the 2025 Budapest Individual Men’s Sabre Fencing World Cup.
Oh Sanguk 오상욱 made his international debut on the sabre fencing circuit at the 2015-16 Trofeo Luxardo World Cup, where he placed 3rd place, an incredible feat for anyone’s first international competition. At the time, Oh Sanguk 오상욱 was just 18 years old. He missed his high school graduation ceremony to attend the competition.
In the same season, Oh Sanguk 오상욱 was selected as one of the four to fence for Team Korea at all International Sabre Team Events (Olympic Champions Won Wooyoung and Oh Eun-seok both retired from the team early to give the youngsters a chance to experience international competition). That year, at the Team Sabre World Championships in Rio, Oh Sanguk 오상욱 badly lost his leg against Kamil Ibragimov, leading to Korea being eliminated in the Quarterfinals.
In the season of 2016-17, Oh Sanguk 오상욱 won his first international fencing competition at the 2016 Gyor World Sabre Fencing Cup by defeating Gu Bongil 구본길 in the final. Oh Sanguk 오상욱 also started to anchor the Korean team in team sabre fencing events, beginning a streak of Korean dominance on the Men’s Sabre Fencing Team Circuit, winning almost every World Cup, and the Sabre Fencing World Championships four years in a row (2017, 2018, 2019, 2022).
From 2017-2021, Oh Sanguk 오상욱 also had a dominant individual streak, winning 3 World Cups, 4 Grand Prix, 1 Asian Championship, 1 World Championship, and held the position of World Number 1 in the seasons of 2018-2019 and 2019-2020.
At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Oh Sanguk 오상욱 lost in the quarterfinal of the men’s individual sabre fencng event, but anchored the Korean Team to win Gold in the Men’s Team Sabre Fencing Event, thus winning his first Olympic Gold Medal.
From the 2021 to 2024 seasons, Oh Sanguk 오상욱 suffered a long period of injuries, constantly having to take time off competitions for treatment on his right ankle. Though he did make a heroic return to win the 2023 Men’s Sabre Fencing Seoul Grand Prix.
Besides Seoul 2023, in the lead-up to the 2024 Paris Olympics, Oh Sanguk 오상욱 won a Silver at the 2023 Algiers Fencing World Cup and the 2024 Kuwait City Asian Fencing Championships – good results, but far from his dominant state during the run-up of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. The Korean team also lost both Kim Junghwan 김정환 and Kim Junho 김준호 for a much less experienced team of Park Sangwon and Do Gyeong.
JP2021.COM - Tokyo Olympics 2020.