Kim Gura Explains the Real Story Behind Lee Hyung-taik and Lee Dae-hoon's 2024 Assault Rumor

Comedian and broadcaster Kim Gura used his YouTube channel on the 14th to walk back one of the more persistent sports celebrity rumors of recent years: that tennis player Lee Hyung-taik and taekwondo Olympic medalist Lee Dae-hoon had come to blows in Seoul's Gangnam district in 2024. The story, it turns out, was a drunk stumble seen by the wrong person at the wrong moment.

Kim Gura said he heard the account directly from Lee Hyung-taik at a recent recording of MBC's Radio Star, where the former Davis Cup player explained what actually happened. The two men had been drinking together and were trying to hail a taxi when they lost their footing and fell into each other. A bystander witnessed the scene, read it as a physical altercation, and reported it.

How the rumor got its shape

Kim Gura also recounted the more colorful version that had circulated before the truth emerged: that Lee Hyung-taik had proposed a bet involving balancing an apple on his head, Lee Dae-hoon had attempted a taekwondo kick, and the kick had connected. That story, Kim Gura made clear, was never what Lee Hyung-taik told him. It was a layer of embellishment that had accreted around a much simpler set of facts.

The original 2024 reports identified the men only as "Person A," a taekwondo Olympic medalist, and "Person B," a former national tennis representative, without naming them. Their identities had since become widely speculated, and Kim Gura's account on his channel Gri Gura, uploaded as part of episode 115 of his "Kim Gura Economic Research Institute" series, is the first time the full names have been attached to a direct explanation of events.

The broader point Kim Gura was making on the episode concerns how quickly secondhand information moves in Korean entertainment circles. He noted that two decades ago, celebrities would freely exchange personal news backstage; now, he said, almost no one speaks candidly in green rooms because the social infrastructure for gossip has become too efficient at distorting whatever enters it. The Gangnam incident is the example he reached for to illustrate how far a misread scene can travel.

Lee Hyung-taik's Radio Star episode is scheduled to air on the 16th.