Namadi Joel Jin: From Descendants of the Sun Child Actor to Asian Games Sprinter

Namadi Joel Jin posted a heat-best 10.23 seconds in the men's 100m preliminaries at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on the 24th, advancing to the semifinals as the top qualifier in his group. What caught attention beyond the result was a detail resurfacing in Korean sports coverage: the 19-year-old sprinter once appeared as a child actor in Descendants of the Sun, the 2016 KBS 2TV drama that became one of the decade's defining Korean television events.

That intersection of two very different careers, separated by nearly a decade, points to how quickly Joel Jin has grown into one of Korea's most watched young athletes.

The goat boy from Urk

In Descendants of the Sun, Joel Jin played Blackie, a war orphan living in the fictional disaster zone of Urk. He shared scenes with Song Joong-ki, Jin Goo, and SHINee's Onew, and his most remembered moment came opposite Onew's character Lee Chi-hoon. Asked what he wanted as a gift, Blackie answered that he didn't want shoes, he wanted a goat, because he wanted to raise one. The line was brief, but it landed with viewers, and the nickname "goat boy" followed him online for years.

Joel Jin was born in 2006 to a Nigerian father and a Korean mother and grew up in Korea. He started track and field in the fifth grade of elementary school, a relatively late entry point for what has become an accelerating career.

From junior track to a national record

After the drama, Joel Jin shifted his focus entirely to athletics. He moved through the junior circuit steadily before breaking through on the senior stage. At last year's Asian Athletics Championships, he was part of the Korean team that won the men's 4x400m relay, taking the country's first-ever gold in that event and setting a new national record in the process. He then added a second relay gold at the Summer Universiade in Germany.

This year, Joel Jin ran a personal best of 10.13 seconds, matching the second-fastest time ever recorded by a Korean sprinter. He also won the national sports festival (전국체전) title last year, cementing his status as the likely face of Korean sprinting for the next generation. He represents Yecheon County Athletics Club.

At the Asian Games, teammate Biwesa Daniel Gasama of Ansan City Hall also qualified for the 100m semifinals with the same time of 10.23, giving Korea two sprinters in the next round and raising realistic expectations of a medal.

Before the Games, Joel Jin said he wanted to break his personal record and push for a podium finish, a goal that, after his heat performance, no longer looks like a stretch.