Becoming an idol takes a lot of talent. Other than having a good singing voice, dancing is also very important to become a K-Pop idol. For this, having a fit body is essential, which many idols develop through years of playing various sports in their early years. Many of them change their dreams of being a professional athlete to becoming an idol due to various reasons. Here we have a list of the top 10 K-Pop idols who used to play sports.
1. Jackson Wang
As a young boy in China, Jackson used to be a fencer. Moreover, his parents, too, were fencers and met through sports. In his teen years, Jackson was part of the junior Olympic team for fencing before he auditioned for JYP and moved to Korea to train as a K-Pop idol, eventually debuting in GOT7.
2. Sung Hoon
Sunghoon from Enhypen seems to have lived his whole life on the ice. Before being a professional figure skater, he used to play ice hockey and speed ice skating in his childhood. He was a figure skater for a decade before debuting as an idol, wherein he won several medals in major national competitions.
3. Yohan
Yohan is a soloist and member of former group X1 as well as Wei. Along with being a brilliant singer, Yohan also had a long taekwondo career behind him. With his father as his coach, Yohan won two youth national competitions in the sport before retiring.
4. Yuta
Japanese-born K-Pop idol, Nakamoto Yuta of NCT 127 used to be a soccer player before auditioning for SM and debuting in the group. In fact, he wanted to become a professional soccer player before his dream changed to becoming a singer. He played the sport for over a decade from his early childhood to teen years.
5. Uee
Kim Yoo Jin, better known by her stage name, Uee was a member of former girl group After School before transitioning into acting with several works like Ghost Doctor and High Society under her belt. She went to a physical education high school, where she was a professional swimmer, competing in many national sports competitions before switching to performing arts.
6. Cho Rong
Chorong from Apink is a 3rd degree black belt in Hapkido, a form of martial art. Her father was the director of a Hapkido academy, which is how she got into the sport, continuing it throughout her early childhood years.
7. Leo
Leo from VIXX used to be an avid player of various sports like swimming, taekwondo and especially soccer. In his teen years, he used to be a part of South Korean Junior Team for soccer. He changed his dream of going pro in the sport due to an injury, when he found his love for music and started training to be a singer.
8. Key
In his middle school years, Key from SHINee used to play several water sports including water skiing, also winning national competitions for the sport. Now as a full time singer, the idol still engages in water skiing as a hobby and jokes about his body being too old and forgetting the sport.
9. Cheng Xiao
Chinese-born K-Pop idol, Cheng Xiao from WJSN has a background in martial arts, ballet as well as rhythmic gymnastics. Although not much is known about her childhood in these sports, Cheng Xiao performed a rhythmic gymnastics routine at ISAC (Idol Star Athletic Championship), winning a gold medal for it. Many people deemed her skills to be Olympic worthy.
10. Suga
Suga from BTS created his stage name, taking syllables from the term “Shooting Guard”, the position he used to play in basketball in his early years. Still an avid fan of professional basketball, Suga now plays the sport as a hobby while devoting his time to being a rapper and idol.
