Gu Bon-gil (Korean pronunciation: [ku.bon.ɡil] or [ku] [pon.ɡil]; born 27 April 1989) is a South Korean right-handed sabre fencer.^[2]

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Gu Bon-gil
Gu at the 2013 World Championships
Personal information
Born	(1989-04-27) 27 April 1989 (age 35) Daegu, South Korea
Height	1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	70 kg (154 lb)
Sport
Country	South Korea
Sport	Fencing
Weapon	Sabre
Hand	right-handed
Club	Korea Sports Promotion Foundation[1]
FIE ranking	current ranking
Medal record Men's sabre Representing  South Korea Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 2 0 0 Asian Games 6 2 0 World Championships 4 4 2 Asian Championships 14 4 0 Olympic Games 2012 London Team 2020 Tokyo Team World Championships 2017 Leipzig Team 2018 Wuxi Team 2019 Budapest Team 2022 Cairo Team 2014 Kazan Individual 2014 Kazan Team 2017 Leipzig Individual 2023 Milan Team 2011 Catania Individual 2013 Budapest Team Asian Games 2010 Guangzhou Individual 2010 Guangzhou Team 2014 Incheon Individual 2018 Jakarta Individual 2014 Incheon Team 2018 Jakarta Team 2022 Hangzhou Team 2022 Hangzhou Individual Asian Championships 2010 Seoul Individual 2011 Seoul Team 2012 Wakayama Individual 2013 Shanghai Individual 2013 Shanghai Team 2014 Suwon Individual 2014 Suwon Team 2015 Singapore Team 2016 Wuxi Team 2017 Hong Kong Individual 2017 Hong Kong Team 2019 Chiba Team 2022 Seoul Team 2022 Seoul Individual 2010 Seoul Team sabre 2011 Seoul Individual 2012 Wakayama Team 2015 Singapore Individual Universiade 2017 Taipei Team 2011 Shenzhen Individual 2011 Shenzhen Team

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Gu is an eight-time team Asian champion, seven-time individual Asian champion, and three-time team world champion.

A three-time Olympian, Gu is a two-time team Olympic champion.

A native of Daegu, Gu had played football all through elementary and middle school and went on to Osung High School, which was the alma mater of his 2012 Olympics teammate Oh Eun-seok. The fencing coach at Osung High School had already noticed him in middle school and persuaded him to switch sports.^[3] He majored in physical education at Dong-Eui University, then one of the few universities which had a fencing team.^[4]

Gu was already selected for the youth national teams as a high school student and participated in the 2006 Cadet (Under 17) World Championships. He won individual gold at the Junior (Under 20) World Championships and Junior Asian Championships in 2008.^[5][6]

Gu was first selected for the senior national team in 2010.^[6] He made headlines that year by winning two silver medals in the Grand Prix circuit and individual gold medals at both the Asian Games and Asian Championships. The media dubbed him the "scary rookie" after he narrowly defeated compatriot Oh Eun-seok, then world number 2, in the semi-finals of the Asian Games.^[7][6] His gold medal at the Asian Games meant that he was exempted from mandatory military service.^[8]

Gu won two individual gold medals at the 2010–11 Fencing World Cup and ended the competition ranked number 3 overall. He was selected to participate in the 2012 Summer Olympics along with Oh, Kim Jung-hwan and Won Woo-young. The Olympics began on a sour note as he, Kim and Won did not make it past the semi-final stage of the individual event.^[9] They managed to win a historic gold in the team event, South Korea's first ever Olympic gold medal in the men's team sabre category.^[10][11] The quartet continued to dominate in the team events, sweeping gold at both the Asian Championships and Asian Games hosted at home and winning silver at the World Championships. They also successfully defended their team gold medal at the 2015 Asian Fencing Championships.

Oh Eun-seok and Won Woo-young both retired and were replaced by youngsters Oh Sang-uk and Kim Jun-ho. There was no men's team sabre event at 2016 Summer Olympics due to the now-abolished rotation policy. Gu and Kim Jung-hwan both qualified for the individual event. However, he was narrowly defeated by Mojtaba Abedini, whom Kim went on to defeat in the bronze medal bout.^[12] The following year, the team won gold in the men's team sabre event at the 2017 World Fencing Championships, the country's first team gold at the worlds since 2005, and swept team gold at the 2018 World Championships and Asian Games.^[13] Gu himself won individual silver in the 2017 worlds and successfully defended his Asian Games gold the following year.^[14][8]

Kim Jung-hwan announced his retirement after the 2018 Asian Games and was replaced by Ha Han-sol. The team won gold at the 2019 World Fencing Championships, Gu's third consecutive team gold at the worlds.^[15] Kim came back out of retirement and reunited with the same team from the 2018 Asian Games and Asian Championships. They qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics, which had been postponed for a year. Despite the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and changes to coaching staff, they won team gold, making Gu and Kim the first South Korean fencers (among all fencing disciplines, male or female) to win back-to-back team gold medals at the Olympics.^{[lower-alpha 1][16][17]}

The 2021–22 World Cup season began uneventfully for Gu as he was not able to participate in the Orléans Grand Prix held in October, having tested positive for COVID-19 the day before the competition.^[18][19] He returned to the team which won gold at both the Men's Team World Cup in January and the World Championships to retain their #1 ranking in the team category. Gu himself finished that season on a high by winning gold at the Asian Championships and medalling for the first time at a Grand Prix event since 2018, only losing to Áron Szilágyi in the Padua Grand Prix final by a single point.^[20][21]

Gu earned his master's degree from Kookmin University.^[85]

He married flight attendant Park Eun-ju in 2019.^[86] In November 2022, Gu announced his wife's pregnancy through a television program.^[87] His wife gave birth to a son on 6 March 2023.^[88]

Despite sharing the same family name and bon-gwan (Gu clan of Neungseong), Gu is not an immediate relative of singer and actor Gu Bon-seung or the Koo chaebol family associated with LG Corporation. He and Gu Bon-seung indicated through comments left on one another's official Instagram accounts that they were well aware of the rumors, quipping that it was "an honor" to be mistaken as relatives.^[89][90]