 Choong at the 2016 Olympics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality | British | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 23 May 1995 Orpington, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 186 cm (6 ft 1 in) [1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 78 kg (172 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Great Britain | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Modern pentathlon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Marian Gheorge [2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Joseph Choong MBE (born 23 May 1995) is a British modern pentathlete. He won the gold medal in the event at the 2020 Summer Olympics and the World title in 2022 and 2023. [1] [3]
Choong was born in Orpington, South East London to a Malaysian Chinese father Michael Choong and a British mother Beverley, both doctors. [4] [5] He was privately educated at the independent New Beacon and Whitgift School. [6] [7] He studied at the University of Bath, where he graduated with a degree in mathematics. [8] He also trains at the Pentathlon GB High Performance Centre located at the university. [9] His younger brother Henry is also a modern pentathlete and competed for Great Britain at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics. [10]
In 2010, Choong became the first British athlete to win the European under-16 modern pentathlon title. He was also part of the British team that won a bronze medal in the relay event. [7]
Choong won the GB Open title and the British Junior Championships in 2013. In 2014 he successfully defended both titles with a score of 1,484 points to finish ahead of Team Bath teammates Joe Evans and Tom Toolis, who scored 1,468 points and 1,446 points respectively. Choong, Evans and Toolis combined to win the team gold medal. [11]
At the 2014 World Modern Pentathlon Championships held in Warsaw, Poland he finished 16th. [12] He qualified for the modern pentathlon at the 2016 Summer Olympics by finishing seventh at the 2015 European Championships held in Bath. [3] Choong was placed fourth after the first three events but dropped out of the top eight during the first laps of the combined run and shooting event before moving back up during the final lap. [13]
In March 2016 at the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) world cup event in Rio, which served as a test event for the Olympics, Choong was the highest placed British athlete, finishing thirteenth. [14] In April 2016 Choong achieved a career best finish in a world cup event as he finished fourth in Rome, five seconds behind the Czech Republic's Jan Kuf who took the bronze medal. [15]
Choong made his debut at the Olympics in Rio in 2016. He went into the final event, the laser run, in second place, but a poor event resulted in a 10th-place finish. [16]
At the 2018 European Modern Pentathlon Championships, Choong won his first major individual medal after finishing third. [17] At the 2018 World Modern Pentathlon Championships held in Mexico City, he won a team silver together with and Jamie Cooke and Myles Pillage. [18]
In 2019, Choong won a silver in the individual event at the Modern Pentathlon World Cup held in Sofia, Bulgaria. [19] He also won a team gold at the European Championships with Cooke and Tom Toolis. [20] The following month at the 2019 World Modern Pentathlon Championships held in Hungary, Choong again won silver in the individual event. [21]
In April 2021, Choong won an individual gold at the World Cup held in Sofia. [22]
In August 2021 at the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Choong took gold in the modern pentathlon event, which is the first ever gold for a British man in modern pentathlon. [23] It followed a win by Kate French in the women's competition at the same Olympics to complete a historic double at the Olympics for Britain, the first time a nation has won both. [24] [25]
Choong was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to modern pentathlon. [26] [27]
Boris Grigoryevich Onishchenko is a former Soviet modern pentathlete who competed at the 1968, 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics.
Heather Fell is a former British modern pentathlete turned triathlete. She competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics, winning the silver medal in the women's modern pentathlon event.
Katy Livingston is a British modern pentathlete who has competed at the Olympic Games.
Katherine Fiona “Kate” Allenby MBE is a British modern pentathlete who competed in two Summer Olympics, taking the bronze medal at the 2000 Games and placing in 8th place in 2004. She has won medals at four World Championships, and after retiring from sport, she became a physical education teacher in Bath, England.
Jeremy Robert "Jim" Fox OBE was a British modern pentathlete and Olympic champion.
Helen Glover is a British professional rower and a member of the Great Britain Rowing Team. Ranked the number 1 female rower in the world in 2015–16, she is a two-time Olympic champion, triple World champion, quintuple World Cup champion and quadruple European champion. She and her partner Heather Stanning were the World, Olympic, World Cup and European record holders, plus the Olympic, World and European champions in the women's coxless pairs. She has also been a British champion in both women's fours and quadruple sculls.
Nicholas Lloyd Woodbridge is a British modern pentathlete. The modern pentathlon includes the disciplines of shooting, swimming, fencing, equestrian, and cross country running. Woodbridge competed for Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics, in Beijing, China, and finished 25th in the men's modern pentathlon. He also competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics. where he finished in 10th place despite being ranked 3rd in the world. In 2013 he achieved his best career result when he took the silver medal in the World Championships.
Samantha Murray is an English modern pentathlete. She won the silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and the bronze medal at the 2012 World Championships. In 2014, she won individual gold and team silver medals at the 2014 World Championships. In 2015, Murray reached world number #1 in the Modern Pentathlon World Rankings after taking Gold at the USA World Cup followed by a 5th place at the Berlin World Championships. Murray finished in 8th Place at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, Brazil.
Mhairi Spence is a British modern pentathlete. She has won a series of medals at European and World Championships, but was not selected for the 2008 Summer Olympics by the British team due to the limited number of places available. After considering retiring in 2009, she returned to the sport and in 2012 she won gold medals in both the individual and the team events at the 2012 World Championships, and qualified to be chosen for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Jan Bártů is a Czech former modern pentathlete and coach who competed in the 1976 Summer Olympics and in the 1980 Summer Olympics. He won an individual bronze and a team silver at the 1976 Summer Games. He was coached by his father Karel Bártů, who competed for Czechoslovakia in modern pentathlon at the 1948 Summer Olympics. Jan secured his place at the 1976 Olympic Games at the age of 21 by finishing fourth in the 1976 Hungarian World Cup. He also finished second in the 1976 World Junior Championships, a few weeks after the Olympics. The success of Bártů and his team-mates at the Games represented the first major success in Modern Pentathlon for Czechoslovakia.
Aleksander Leonidovich Lesun is a Belarusian-born naturalized Russian modern pentathlete. He is a multiple-time medalist at the World and European Championships, and was a top-ranked male modern pentathlete in the world by the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM).
Katherine Elizabeth French is a British modern pentathlete who won the gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
James Cooke is a British modern pentathlete. Cooke is both the 2018 World and 2019 European champion in the individual event, and the 2019 European Champion in the Team event with Tom Toolis and Joe Choong.
Jun Woong-tae is a South Korean modern pentathlete.
Great Britain, or in full Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the team of the British Olympic Association (BOA), which represents the United Kingdom, competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Myles Pillage is a British modern pentathlete.
The 2019 European Modern Pentathlon Championships was held in Bath, Great Britain from 6 to 11 August 2019. The event was to be the 27th edition of the competition, and the third held in Great Britain.
Joanna Muir is a British modern pentathlete, who was part of the British squad that won the team event at the 2019 European Modern Pentathlon Championships, and came second in the women's relay event at the 2016 World Modern Pentathlon Championships. She came second at the opening event of the 2021 Modern Pentathlon World Cup. Muir competed in the modern pentathlon event at the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics.
Ahmed El-Gendy is an Egyptian modern pentathlete. He won the silver medal in the men's event at the 2020 Summer Olympics. He also competed in the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics and won gold for Egypt. He is the first athlete from Africa to medal in modern pentathlon.
Great Britain, the team of the British Olympic Association (BOA) which represents the United Kingdom, is scheduled to compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris from 26 July to 11 August 2024. British athletes have appeared in every Summer Olympic Games of the modern era, alongside Australia, France, Greece, and Switzerland.
|
