Shooting Kim Ye-ji's 'real reason' for abruptly ending her career has been revealed.

ⓒYonhap News Agency

Kim Ye-ji (32), a silver medalist in shooting at the 2024 Paris Olympics, recently ended her contract with her team early and decided to suspend her career for the time being.

It is known that not only parenting but also wounds caused by malicious comments against him played a major role in this decision.

Kim Ye-ji announced the termination of the contract with Imsil-gun Office in Jeollabuk-do through her agency on the 6th. The contract period was until December this year, but the contract was terminated early instead of renewing the contract.

Kim Ye-ji said through her agency, "I will stop my journey as an Olympic medalist for a while, spend time with my child for the time being and stick to my mother's role." "I hope you think of this break as a process to further develop into a shooter," he said. "The timing of my return is undecided, but I will do my best to return as soon as possible."

However, contrary to his explanation that he would concentrate on raising children, it was reported that malicious comments directed at him were the cause of the decision to suspend his career as a shooter for the time being.

After the Paris Olympics, he appeared in pictorials and advertisements with the idea of promoting shooting, an unpopular sport, and actively engaged in external activities, as criticism increased rapidly.

The agency told No Cut News, "It is known that Kim Ye-ji decided to suspend her career for a while because of parenting, but it is not necessarily because of that," adding, "The player struggled a lot with malicious comments."

The contents of the malicious comments that Kim Ye-ji struggled with are mainly mocking comments about foreign activities after the Paris Olympics.

In particular, when he was selected as Tesla Korea's ambassador for the first time in Korea, criticism continued such as "Row when the water comes in," "Stay true to your main job," and "A silver medalist who is better than a gold medalist."

An official from the agency said, "Kim Ye-ji is very soft unlike she looks," adding, "I think she was hurt a lot because people saw her overseas activities in a bad way, thinking that it would be better to know more about shooting, which is an unpopular sport."

Reporter Park Sun-young of Digital News Team