In 2012, she won the gold medal in the -67kg category at the London Olympic Games, beating 2012 European Champion (-67 kg) Nur Tatar of Turkey in the final. She became the first Korean female athlete (and the second Korean) to defend an individual title in the Summer Olympics and to win an Olympic individual medal in a particular event in three consecutive Olympic Games, Jin Jong-oh in shooting having achieved the same feats for men's 50 m pistol earlier in the 2012 Summer Olympics. At 26, she became the youngest Korean to achieve these records. She also became the first woman ever to win three Olympic taekwondo medals.