Kim Eun-jung

Kim Eun-jung, nicknamed "Annie" (born November 29, 1990) is a South Korean curler from Uiseong.

She currently skips her own team on the World Curling Tour.

In 2010, she lost in the final to China's Liu Jinli, in 2011 she lost to Japan's Sayaka Yoshimura, and in 2012 she lost to Yoshimura again.

Right after juniors in April 2012, Kim earned her first non-junior national title at the South Korean Curling Championships, held every spring to qualify the winner as the national team for the following season.

At the 2012 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships, the South Korean team skipped by Eun-jung finished in third place after losing the semifinal to Japan's Satsuki Fujisawa, and therefore failed to qualify for the world championships.

After failing to win the championship in 2013, Kim captured the national championship again in April 2014.

This qualified her and her longtime squad of vice Kim Kyeong-ae, second Kim Seon-yeong and lead Kim Yeong-mi for their first Olympic berth, which they had missed four years before with a loss to Kim Ji-sun in the final of the 2013 South Korean Curling Championships.

At the 2014 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships, she skipped South Korea to an unbeaten 8–0 round robin record and a semifinal win over New Zealand.

However, in the final, she lost against China's Liu Sijia on an extra-end steal, narrowly missing a berth to the world championships.

Later that season, her Korean team competed at the 2015 Winter Universiade where they lost in a tiebreaker to Switzerland's Michèle Jäggi.

Despite not winning the national championship for the 2015–16 season, they had a great season on the World Curling Tour.

They won three tour events to start the season, the AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic, Canad Inns Women's Classic and the Uiseong International Curling Tour.

They also competed in four Grand Slam of Curling events and reached the semifinals of the 2015 Tour Challenge, where they lost to Rachel Homan.

They finished seventh on the money list for the season, with $61,617.

Kim skipped the national team from 2016 to 2018 and represented Korea on home ice at the 2018 Winter Olympics, where her team won a silver medal.

As a junior skip, Kim led South Korea to three straight silver medals at the Pacific-Asia Junior Curling Championships.

In April 2016, Kim Eun-jung claimed her third national championship by beating a high school curling team skipped by Kim Min-ji in the final.

At the 2016 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships, her South Korean team went through the round robin with a 6–1 record and once again won the semifinal over New Zealand.

Then in the final, she defeated China's Wang Bingyu to capture her first Asia-Pacific title.

This qualified her South Korean team for the 2017 World Women's Curling Championship, her first World Championship.

They finished the round robin with a 5–6 record, failing to advance to the playoff round.

In May 2017, Kim Eun-jung defended her national title at the 2017 South Korean Curling Championships, which also served as trials for the 2018 Winter Olympics, by winning the best-of-seven final over Kim Min-ji's junior team 4–1 after defeating Gim Un-chi in the best-of-five semifinal 3–2.

Later that year, Kim and her team defended their title at the 2017 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships, going a perfect 12–0 through the tournament.

The 2018 Olympic curling team of skip Kim Eun-jung, vice Kim Kyeong-ae, second Kim Seon-yeong, lead Kim Yeong-mi and alternate Kim Cho-hi, coached by Peter Gallant of Canada, received celebrity status for their strong performances despite entering the tournament as underdogs.

Korea topped the round robin standings with just one loss to Pacific-Asian rivals Satsuki Fujisawa.

Their wins included defeating heavily favoured Canada, Great Britain, and Sweden.

They then advanced to the final by defeating Japan in an extra end before losing to Sweden to claim the silver medal.

They also gained international recognition due to fans dubbing them the "Garlic Girls" since they all came from Uiseong which was long known for its garlic production but has recently become Korea's curling capital.

Since all five team members share the same surname Kim, and as their actual names are hard to pronounce, the team members adopted breakfast-themed nicknames: Sunny (a reference to Sunny side up eggs ), Steak, Pancake, Annie (a brand of yogurt) and ChoCho (a type of cookie).

Kim Eun-jung "Annie" is also known for her owl-eyed glasses.

The following month, the team played in the 2018 World Women's Curling Championship where they qualified for the playoffs with an 8–4 record.

In the quarterfinals, they lost to the United States' Jamie Sinclair, eliminating them from contention.

The "garlic girls" did not play much during the 2018–19 season, amidst a coaching scandal, which involved the country's sport federation vice president verbally abusing the team and taking prize money away from them.

As she was preparing to give birth, Kim Eun-jung did not play in the 2019 WCT Arctic Cup with her team, the last event of the season.

Alternate Kim Cho-hi played lead as the rest of the team moved up the line-up a position.

They finished with a 1–3 record, missing the playoffs.

Team Kim returned to the World Curling Tour for the 2019–20 season, but Eun-jung would not play in their first few events.

With Kim Kyeong-ae skipping, her team qualified for the playoffs at the 2019 Cameron's Brewing Oakville Fall Classic, the 2019 Stu Sells Oakville Tankard and finished runner-up at the inaugural WCT Uiseong International Curling Cup.

Her first event back on the ice was the 2019 Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic where she threw second rocks but still called the team.

They reached the quarterfinals, losing to Kerri Einarson.