(Olympics) Like father, like daughter: gymnast vaults to bronze 25 years after father's silver

TOKYO, Aug. 1 (Yonhap) -- South Korean artistic gymnast Yeo Seo-jeong can proudly call herself an Olympic medalist, but the 19-year-old vaulter isn't even the first one in her family to claim that title.

It was a quarter century ago that her father, Yeo Hong-chul, captured silver medal in the men's vault at the Atlanta Olympics.

Thanks to Seo-jeong's bronze medal in the women's vault at the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday, the Yeos are now the first father-daughter duo from South Korea to have won Olympic medals.

The junior Yeo scored an average of 14.733 points, after 15.333 points in her first vault and 14.133 points in her latter attempt.

Rebeca Andrade of Brazil won the gold with 15.083 points and no one else averaged over 15 points.

Yeo's chances of a gold medal looked promising for a moment, as her 15.333 points were the highest first-attempt points with three gymnasts remaining.

Yeo, the 2018 Asian Games gold medalist, is such an accomplished vaulter that she already has a namesake skill. And it's a variation of one of her father's eponymous skills, Yeo 2.

Her father performed his with a 900-degree twist at the end, and his daughter does hers with a 720-degree twist.

Seo-jeong had saved it for the final. She went with safer, less risky vaults in the qualification stage to ensure that she'd reach the final first.

The daughter Yeo's namesake vault is the most challenging move in the women's competition with a difficulty score of 6.200 points.

Vaulters are scored on their moves' difficulty score and their execution, with deductions for mistakes during the routine.

Yeo earned 9.133 execution points for her powerful vault to position herself for a medal. Her second vault was an easier move with a 5.400 difficulty score, and she would need another high execution score to stay in the medal picture.

Yeo's landing this time wasn't as smooth as the first one. But the three gymnasts that followed couldn't catch Yeo, who cried tears of joy when she clinched bronze.

Her father was doing TV commentary work. When the final scoreboard showed his daughter had won bronze, Hong-chul took off his analyst hat and screamed and clapped for joy.

In that moment, he acted just like any other proud father would have.

jeeho@yna.co.kr
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