Who is Lydia Ko? Get to know the New Zealand golfer better after she won gold at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games
Published 10/08/2024 at 18:14 GMT+1
Lydia Ko took the golfing world by storm after bursting onto the scene as a teenager and becoming the No. 1 golfer in the world by the age of just 18. Now the 27-year-old has cemented her legacy in Paris. Ko has completed the trifecta of gold, silver and bronze medals in just the third iteration of the event after it was introduced in 2016. But who is the golfer from New Zealand?
Fleetwood walks off course an Olympic silver medallist as Scheffler takes gold
Video credit: TNT Sports
Lydia Ko completed her medal collection at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with an impressive victory in the women's golf.
She won silver at Rio 2016 before taking bronze at Tokyo 2020, and now she has captured a gold in the French capital.
Tied for the lead heading into the final round at Le Golf National, the two-time major winner produced a superb performance to get the better of Switzerland's Morgane Metraux.
But who is the New Zealand golfer?
Who is Lydia Ko?
Ko, born in Seoul, South Korea, began playing golf at the age of five, a year after immigrating to New Zealand and gaining citizenship alongside her family.
She has stated her parents have been most influential in her playing career, which saw her make a meteoric rise in the game as a teenager.
The New Zealander turned professional at the age of 16 after winning three professional events as an amateur.
Ko became the youngest ever player to win a pro tournament, winning the NSW Open at just 14 years old.
In the same year, Ko became the youngest ever winner on the LPGA Tour by winning the Canadian Open.
Ko would successfully defend the tournament, again as an amateur, the following year.
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How many times has Lydia Ko won?
A lot. Ko has won a lot.
Professionally, she's won 34, to be exact.
Ko won three times in her first full year as a professional – the CME Group Tour Championship, Marathon Classic and Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic in 2014.
She would win five more times in 2015, becoming the youngest ever player to reach No. 1 in the women's world rankings at 18 years old.
She also captured one of her two major championship victories in the same year, setting a major record with the lowest ever final round of 63 at the Evian Championship on her way to victory.
Ko later broke her won record in 2021, firing a final round 62 at the ANA Inspiration, now called the Chevron Championship.
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It was that very tournament that Ko captured her second major title in 2016, winning back-to-back after her Evian triumph and becoming the youngest player to win multiple major titles.
Ko also won the CME Group Tour Championship in 2022, collecting the $2 million first prize as a result. She would win the LPGA Player of the Year title in the same year as she won three times, the Vare Trophy for lowest average score and topped the LPGA money list.
Ko has flirted with winning more than her two majors, finishing in second place in the 2016 Women's PGA Championship and a tie for third in both the Women's Open Championship in 2015 and the US Women's Open in 2016.
How has Lydia Ko performed at the Olympics?
Ko has medalled at every Olympics since the event was introduced to the Games in 2016.
Ko won silver in Rio in golf's Olympic debut, with the now 27-year-old getting the Olympic rings tatooed on her right bicep to mark the achievement.
The current world No. 22 then finished third in Japan five years later, taking home a bronze medal at Kasumigaseki Country Club.
Her gold in Paris has completed her medal collection and taken New Zealand's gold medal haul to eight at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games so far.
They are currently sitting in 11th in the Olympic medal table.
discovery+ is the streaming home of the Olympic Games, and the only place you can watch every moment of Paris 2024 this summer
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