JINCHEON — Tokyo-born Korean judoka Huh Mimi said Thursday she will lean on support from her loved ones in her pursuit of an Asian Games gold medal in her native Japan next month. Born to a Korean father and a Japanese mother, Huh used to compete for Japan earlier in her career. She began representing Korea in 2021 to honor a dying wish of her grandmother. Huh, 23, is also a descendant of a Korean independence fighter from the Japanese colonial period. That personal history, plus her rise as a force in international judo with the Olympic silver and the world title in 2024, made Huh an instant star in Korean sports. But Huh underwent shoulder surgery in March last year and struggled to regain her form for much of 2025. "The rehab from the surgery was really difficult," Huh said during a joint press conference for the South Korean Asian Games delegation at the Jincheon National Training Center in Jincheon, some 85 kilometers south of Seoul. "I even wondered if I would ever reach a podium again." Huh did return to an international podium in November last year by winning gold in the women's