Documented path
Born in Iksan, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea, Yang discovered table tennis in the third grade (around 1973) when her teacher recommended she try the sport. By her second year at Iil Girls Middle School, she was already showing exceptional talent. She rose to become one of the worlds leading womens singles players of the 1980s, rivaling Indonesias Susi Susanti and Chinas Ye Zhaoying. She won World Championship singles silver in 1983 at age 19, World Championship doubles gold in 1987 with Hyun Jung-hwa, and Olympic doubles gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, becoming South Koreas first Olympic gold medalist in table tennis.
Born in 1964 in Iksan, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea, introduced to table tennis by her elementary school teacher in the third grade.
Retired table tennis player, works as a table tennis coach for South Koreas junior team in Seoul.
Where the conditions came from
Each is placed on a −1 to 3 scale from documented evidence, and the three are never added together. A combined total would rank Yang Young-ja against other people. Held apart, they explain why this path ran differently from another one—which is the only comparison this project supports.
The marble itself
+2Tailwind
What capability, drive, or early skill is documented in the person rather than their surroundings?
Discovered table tennis in 3rd grade (~age 9) when teacher recommended she try the sport. World Championship singles runner-up at 19. Prodigy-level achievement in reaching world-level by 19, described as the only Korean player who could challenge Chinese players.
Where it was dropped
0Neither way
What money, family standing, network, or permission was already in place before the work began?
Father was a merchant (상업), mother was a homemaker. Six children in the family, Yang was the youngest. Rural Jeollabuk-do province during South Korea's developing era. Working-class family with no table tennis connections.
The shape of the track
+2Tailwind
What place, timing, institution, or peer group made the next step available?
School teacher introduction at age 9 provided domain entry. Korean national table tennis system with structured training. Competed at Samsung Sports Center with national team coaching. Korean national pipeline provided elite competition exposure.
A −1 is a documented headwind, not a missing value; a 0 means the sources record nothing notable either way. Annotation confidence: Medium. These are analyst readings of what the sources record, not measurements of merit, talent, or effort. The twenty-two scored dimensions remain available inside the deeper research detail.
What moved through the conditions
This records repeated behaviour or recovery described by sources; it is not a grit or merit score.
This is an unchosen opening or condition in the record, not an estimate of how much luck caused the outcome.
Strongest documented signals: Elite institution pipeline, Prodigy / innate ability, Family financial platform.
Describes the starting position, not what the person later made of it.
Strongest observed levers: Complementary team, Domain proximity, Started serious reps before 20.
Measures what was present, not whether it was inherited, earned, self-built, external, or mixed.
The timeline below shows the sequence of work and transitions around the selected early milestone. It is evidence of a path, not proof that every step was necessary.
Dominant figure at the top of a field. The tier summarizes documented career recognition through the data cutoff—not Yang Young-ja's worth or future potential.
Question four · where did the leverage come from?
Each non-zero lever gets a best-supported origin, evidence signals, and confidence. Unresolved is the honest default when the biography cannot distinguish self-built, advantage-enabled, earned, external, or mixed.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
A structural wave is external to the person, even when their position improved access to it.
This is a bounded inference from the current annotations—not a claim about private effort, merit, or the percentage of Yang Young-ja's outcome attributable to any origin.
Structural luck, Encounter luck, Event luck, Outcome variance can change every arrow in the path. This successful-only dataset cannot observe the near-identical paths that did not break through, so luck stays visible and unscored.
Multiplying capacity documented later in the path. Measures what was present, not whether it was inherited, earned, self-built, external, or mixed.
Access or conditions documented near the beginning of the path. Zero means "no clear evidence in reviewed sources," not "advantage was absent."
Yang grew up in Iksan, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea. She was introduced to table tennis by her elementary school teacher in the third grade, suggesting the sport was not a family tradition but was discovered through the school system. South Koreas developing table tennis scene in the 1970s relied on school-based programs for youth athlete development, particularly for girls.
Not documented.
Yangs introduction to table tennis through her school teacher at age 9 shows early domain proximity through the educational system rather than family inheritance. Her rapid rise to World Championship silver at 19 demonstrates prodigy-level talent. The Korean national table tennis system provided an elite performance pipeline. Her partnership with Hyun Jung-hwa in doubles created a complementary team that won World Championship and Olympic gold.
advantage confidence: Medium · source count: 3 · audit: partial_source_verification · status: subagent_researched_beta