Gim Un-chi
Gim Un-chi is a Korean curler from Gyeonggi-do. She currently skips the South Korean National Women's Curling Team on the World Curling Tour.Career
Gim played as lead in her first world championship at the 2011 Capital One World Women's Curling Championship along with skip Kim Ji-sun. The team struggled finishing in last place with a 2-9 record. At the 2012 Ford World Women's Curling Championship, South Korea made history by winning the most games ever in history and made the playoffs for the first time. They eliminated Canada to advance to the semifinal, but lost a close game against eventual champions Switzerland. They then lost another close game to the Canadians in the bronze medal game, finishing in fourth place. Their fourth-place finish ensured them a spot in the 2014 Winter Olympics, even though South Korea did not qualify for the 2013 World Championships. At the Olympics, Gim played in the third and fourth positions, and the Korean team finished in eighth place with a 3–6 win-loss record. A month after the Olympics, Gim and her team represented South Korea at the 2014 World Women's Curling Championship in Saint John, New Brunswick. Like in 2012, the team had a successful run finishing round robin play with an 8-3 record and winning the tiebreaker 7-5 over Sweden's Margaretha Sigfridsson to qualify for the playoffs. They defeated Russia's Anna Sidorova in the 3 vs. 4 game but then lost the semi-final to, once again, Switzerland who went on to win the event. Gim missed her final shot of the Bronze Medal Game and the Russian's stole the win 7-6.
The 2014-15 curling season was not a good season for the team. They won a World Curling Tour, the Crestwood Ladies Fall Classic but they didn't play in the 2014 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships and South Korea did not qualify for the 2015 World Women's Curling Championship. The 2015-16 curling season was successful for the team. They won the Hub International Crown of Curling, finished second at the 2015 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships and qualified for the 2016 World Women's Curling Championship. Gim and her team struggled during the World's, finishing in seventh place with an 5-6 record. Gim finished off the season with a third place finish at the Korean National Championship.
Gim played in a number of events in the 2016-17 curling season and made the playoffs in a few as well. The team finished second at the inaugural Hokkaido Bank Curling Classic, third at the Hub International Crown of Curling and the Medicine Hat Charity Classic and fifth at the Crestwood Ladies Fall Classic. They also won the Karuizawa International 7-4 over Margaretha Sigfridsson. For the 2017-18 curling season they didn't play as many events but still found success finishing runner-up at the Prestige Hotels & Resorts Curling Classic to Rachel Homan and qualifying for the quarterfinals at the Colonial Square Ladies Classic, Karuizawa International and the Glynhill Ladies International.
The team had a full schedule for the 2018-19 curling season with more than ten events and qualifying for the playoffs in five of them. They finished runner-up at the Gord Carroll Curling Classic and even played in the 2018 Tour Challenge Tier 2, losing the quarterfinal game.
In summer 2019, Team Gim would win the 2019 South Korean Curling Championship after stealing two in the tenth end of the final against Kim Min-ji. To start their tour season, her team had a quarterfinal finish at the 2019 Cameron's Brewing Oakville Fall Classic. They followed this by missing the playoffs at the 2019 Stu Sells Oakville Tankard, a semifinal finish at the 2019 AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic and winning the 2019 KW Fall Classic posting a perfect 7-0 record en route to capturing the title. They missed the playoffs at their next two events, the 2019 Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic and the 2019 Canad Inns Women's Classic. At the 2019 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships, Gim and her team had a disappointing finish. After going 6-1 in the round robin, they lost the semi-final to China's Han Yu. This performance meant they didn't qualify Korea for the 2020 World Championship through the Pacific region and would have to play in the World Qualification Event for their spot in the World's. Next Team Gim competed in the 2019 Boundary Ford Curling Classic where they lost in the final to Kim Min-ji. Two weeks later, they played in the Jim Sullivan Curling Classic in Saint John, New Brunswick, the same city where the team had success in 2014 at the World's. It was another successful run for the rink as they went 7-0 through the tournament to capture the title. Gim's rink went undefeated at the World Qualification Event, going 7-0 in the round robin and defeating Italy in the 1 vs. 2 playoff game to qualify South Korea for the World Championship. The team was set to represent South Korea at the 2020 World Women's Curling Championship before the event got cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Qualification Event would be their last event of the season as the remaining two events were also cancelled due to the pandemic.
