A woman in her 20s collapsed and died just 500 meters short of the finish line at a marathon held in central Seoul. The runner has been identified as Yu Ji-won, a running influencer enrolled at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and Hwang Young-cho, the Olympic marathon gold medalist turned coach, has warned about the dangers of pushing too hard for a personal record.
Collapsed 500 Meters From the Finish Line: KAIST Student Dies
The organizing committee of the 2026 Seoul Race said on the 14th that it had recently announced the death through its official website and expressed condolences to the bereaved family.
"At around 8:49 a.m. on Oct. 11, an emergency occurred in which a participant in the Seoul Race half-marathon collapsed at the 20.6-kilometer mark," the committee said. "After receiving first aid at the scene, the runner was transported by ambulance to a medical facility for treatment but sadly passed away."
"We pray for the repose of the deceased and extend our deepest condolences to the family facing this sudden grief," the committee added. "The organizing committee will closely review the circumstances and continue with the necessary follow-up measures."
The participant was Yu Ji-won, born in 2001, who had been researching artificial intelligence semiconductors as a graduate student at KAIST while also working as a running influencer. The sudden death of the young researcher, who had balanced academic work with athletics, has drawn widespread sympathy. The exact cause of death has not been disclosed.
"Those Who Know When to Quit Are the Better Runners": Hwang Warns on Record Chasing
With deaths occurring at successive marathon events, attention is turning to participants' reckless pursuit of personal bests and to safety management at races.
Hwang Young-cho, who won the marathon gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, released a video titled "Why Do Deaths Happen at Marathons?" on his YouTube channel "Youngjo-hyung" the previous day.
Hwang did not refer directly to the latest death but stressed that running, which people take up for their health, must not end up threatening their lives because of an excessive desire for faster times.
"People run to live long and healthy lives," he said, urging runners to check their own physical condition before setting out.
He took particular aim at the amateur running culture in which people enter races without sufficient training or push themselves too hard to set a personal best.
"Ordinary people don't get enough sleep, they have stress at work, and sometimes they enter races without having trained properly," Hwang said. "There are probably many who run just to show off on social media. When you push yourself recklessly for display rather than for health, that's when fatal problems arise."
"If you run all out chasing a time, trying to set a personal best, you are bound to overdo it. Running for the clock should be left to athletes, not ordinary runners," he said. "Those who know when to quit are the better runners. Knowing when to stop means knowing yourself."
Hwang said the burden falls not only on individual participants but also on organizers, who he said must manage safety thoroughly. "They should have eight to 10 ambulances on standby as a baseline so that emergency treatment can begin immediately," he said. "Who is the race for? Runners need to know their own bodies, but organizers also have to prepare far more rigorously when it comes to safety."