Nam Dong-heon ends 12-year gold drought, hopes win opens doors for next generation

After finally reaching the top of the podium at his third Asian Games, Nam Dong-heon's thoughts turned not to himself but to the riders who would come after him.

Nam, who ended South Korea's 12-year gold medal drought in individual dressage, told Yonhap in an interview that he hopes the result will help improve conditions across Korean equestrian sport. "I want to be a sunbae who creates an environment where younger riders can get on a horse just a little more comfortably," he said.

Nam claimed gold Sunday at the Tokyo Equestrian Park, where the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games dressage individual final was held, scoring 75.190 points alongside his horse Leonidas. He had earlier helped Kim Si-woo, Lee Myeong-seok and Do Hyeon-woo win silver in the team event. South Korea's last individual dressage gold at the Asian Games came at the 2014 Incheon Games — 12 years ago.

The tournament also gave Nam a chance to put two painful Asian Games campaigns behind him. At the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games he won team silver but left dissatisfied with his own performance, and at the 2022 Hangzhou Games he could not compete at all after his horse First Edition suffered a sudden injury.

"Because of those painful experiences in the past, I deliberately tried to clear my mind and stay composed this time," he said. "When it came down to it and I was actually out there, I felt like I could do it — and my confidence grew."

The path to gold ran through a new partner: Leonidas. After Hangzhou, Nam traveled to Europe three times in search of a new horse, riding more than 100 animals before choosing Leonidas, who was seven years old at the time. He then spent three years training, coaxing and bonding with the horse himself.

Nam said that even during the final he kept whispering to Leonidas throughout their ride — "You can do it," "Let's focus," "You need to be out in front."

Eight years ago Nam was the junior member of the team that won silver together; now he is its elder statesman. Korean dressage missed gold at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games and then went without a medal at Hangzhou — the first time the discipline had been shut out since its introduction as an official Asian Games event — but the individual gold and team silver at this year's Games mark a clear turnaround.

Nam expressed a strong wish that the victory would help Korean equestrian sport recover from the deep slump it fell into after the "Choi Soon-sil state affairs manipulation scandal" struck the sport. "When I started riding, things were better than they are now," he said. "I hope riders out there can continue their careers with more attention and warmth from the public."