Seo Seung-jae
Seo Seung-jae is a South Korean badminton player. A three-time World champion, he is the first South Korean player in 24 years to have won two gold medals in a single edition of the BWF World Championships, by winning the mixed and men's doubles event at the 2023 BWF World Championships, partnering with Chae Yoo-jung and Kang Min-hyuk respectively. He competed at the 2017 Sudirman Cup and helped the Korean national team to its fourth trophy.
Career
In 2014, Seo competed at the Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China.As a student of Wonkwang University, Seo was entrusted to take part in the [Badminton at the 2017 Canada Open Grand Prix|2017 Summer Universiade|2017 Summer Universiade] in Taiwan. He managed to win the men's doubles gold medal with Kim Jae-hwan.
Seo competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the men's doubles partnered with Choi Sol-gyu and in the mixed doubles with Chae Yoo-jung. He was eliminated in the group stage and quarter-finals respectively. After the Olympics, Seo played at the Sudirman Cup and the Thomas Cup, where Korea did not get any medal in both events. He only played two BWF World Tour tournaments in 2021, the Indonesia Masters and Indonesia Open.
In 2022, Seo officially started a new partnership with his junior Kang Min-hyuk. The duo immediately caught attention by winning the Korea Open, defeating higher-ranked pairs such as Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan, and their final opponent Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto in the journey. The duo also won all their matches in the Thomas Cup. However, Seo and Kang saw their results fluctuate throughout 2022, with notable early exits at the Japan Open, Malaysia Open, and the French Open. Seo resumed playing mixed doubles with Chae Yoo-jung at the Indonesia Masters as semi-finalists. The Seo and Chae combination became champions at the Australian Open over teammates Jeong Na-eun and Kim Won-ho, as well as semi-finalists at the Indonesia Open and quarter-finalists at the World Championships.
2023 was Seo's breakthrough year. He won the World Championships in both mixed doubles and men's doubles with his first victory over the world number 1 Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong in mixed doubles, as well as overcoming home favorites Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in men's doubles. He also secured his first ever Super 1000 title at the China Open with a second consecutive victory over Zheng and Huang at the quarter-finals. Thanks to his achievements, Seo was awarded the Male Player of the Year for 2023. He completed the year with his first ever World Tour Finals title, this time from men's doubles, after winning against reigning world number 1 Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang.
Started the 2025 season with new partner, Seo and Kim Won-ho emerged victorious at the opening tournament of the BWF World Tour in the Malaysia Open. Seo continuing his good form in the next tournament by being a runner-up in India Open and winning Thailand Masters with another partner, Jin Yong. In March, Seo paired with Kim again and won German Open against France's Popov brothers.
Achievements
World Championships
Men's doubles| Year | Venue | Partner | Opponent | Score | Result | Ref | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2023 | Royal Arena, Copenhagen, Denmark |  Asian GamesMixed doubles
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