Overview
- The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee confirmed Jang Chang-sun’s death on Monday, July 20, 2026, and said it will hold an official sports-community funeral this week.
- As a competitor, Jang won a silver at the 1962 Asian Games, an Olympic silver at Tokyo in 1964, and gold in the 52 kg freestyle at the 1966 World Wrestling Championships in Toledo, becoming South Korea’s first world champion.
- After retiring from competition he served as a national coach and as executive director and vice president of the Korea Wrestling Federation, and he led the Taereung National Training Center from 2000 to 2003.
- He helped create overseas training camps and athlete support programs, served on the 2014 Incheon Asian Games organizing executive board, and received two Presidential Commendations plus induction into the KSOC Hall of Fame as a 'Sports Hero' in 2014.
- KSOC President Ryu Seung-min lauded Jang’s pioneering impact on Korean sport, and the committee’s funeral plans signal a formal moment for the national sports community to mark his institutional legacy and influence on coach development.