Spoilers for Single's Inferno season 5 episodes 1-7 ahead. Over the past five years, Netflix's hit dating series Single's Inferno has made its cast into global reality stars. Whether they arrive on the Korean reality show as complete unknowns or already famous in their home country, the show's standout cast members quickly win over fans around the globe. This year is no exception, with women like Kim Min-gee becoming fan-favorites as soon as the season premiered.
Kim Min-gee is no stranger to Korean television, as she was the most famous member of the Single's Inferno season 5 cast before arriving on the island. Now, her blunt, laid-back personality has garnered even more fans, who have lots of thoughts about her love triangle with Song Seung-il and Choi Mina Sue.
Read on to learn more about Kim Min-gee, including her surprising connection to a past Single's Inferno star.
Kim Min-gee is a competitive athlete known as Korea's "Track and Field Goddess."
Kim Min-gee is a 29-year-old (in international age) professional track-and-field athlete who has competed in the sport for 17 years. Both a runner and a hurdler, her specialties are the 400-meter sprint and 400-meter hurdles.
Kim first rose to fame in 2014, when she won the 400-meter hurdles at the 43rd Spring National Middle and High School Athletics Championships. The Changwon National University grad has won the top prize in Korea's National Sports Festival several times, placing first in both the 400-meter flat race and hurdles in 2017 and 2018. She also won the 400-meter race at the festival in 2019.
Thanks to her successful track career, she is known by several nicknames, including "Athletics Goddess," "Goddess of the Track," and "Karina of Track and Field." The latter references her resemblance to the K-pop idol and aespa member.
Kim Min-gee has appeared in several sports-based Korean reality shows.
In 2022, Kim began pursuing a career as a commentator and TV personality, with an appearance at the 2022 Chuseok Special Idol Star Championships (a.k.a. the ISACs). The next year, Kim joined the regular cast of the soccer variety show Kick a Goal, a.k.a Shooting Stars, starting with season 4.
Kim also competed on the first season of King of Survival: Tribal War as a member of Team National Athlete. During her time on the show, she competed against Physical: 100 alums like Amotti, Kim Dong-hyun, Park Ha-yan, Jung Ji-hyun, and Choo Sung-hoon, as well as actor Lee Seung-gi.
Other shows Kim has appeared on include Knowing Bros., King of the Mask Singer, and Baseball Queen.
She's close friends with 'Single's Inferno' season 3 standout Lee Gwan-hee.
Single's Inferno is not immune to the reality TV practice of casting within a limited field. (See all the pageant queens who have graced the series.) Still, it surprised fans to learn that Kim is friends with another athlete and Single's Inferno alum: season 3's Lee Gwan-hee.
In a watch-along posted on Netflix Korea's YouTube channel, the basketball player appeared alongside season 4 alum Park Hae-lin to comment season 5's first episodes. When Kim showed up on Inferno, Lee revealed that they were close, but quickly added that she was not his type. In fact, his comments throughout the video made it seem like they have a brother-sister-like friendship.
"I was shocked to see that Min-gee was on the show. I wasn't sure if she'd be the type guys would like. I'm just worried about her," he said. He later added, "As a close friend, I feel like she [should go] to Paradise with a man who's strong enough to take charge. Someone like that would be a much better match for her."
Kim Min-gee's love triangle with Song Seung-il and Choi Mina Sue is a major storyline of 'Single's Inferno' season 5.
In the first seven episodes of season 5, the biggest highlight has been the saga between Kim Min-gee, Song Seung-il, and Choi Mina Sue. Min-gee and fashion-marketer Seung-il were among the first group to arrive on Inferno, where they immediately had to vote in a first-impressions popularity contest. Min-gee won the vote among the women, but although Seung-il voted for her, she chose to go to Paradise with optician Woo Sung-min instead.
Right after Min-gee left, four more cast members arrived, including pageant queen Choi Mina Sue. On their first night together on Inferno, Seung-il and Mina Sue became interested in each other. However, Min-gee and Seung-il got to talk once she returned to Inferno, and they chose each other for the second Paradise date.
After their night in Paradise, Min-gee seemed to be all in on Seung-il. In the episode 4 Truth Game, she answered Seung-il when asked who she wanted to go to Paradise with next. However, Seung-il admitted that he was interested in both Min-gee and Mina Sue. Right after, Mina Sue chose Seung-il as her top pick, and Seung-il admitted he wanted to go to Paradise with someone new...as he sat right next to Min-gee. Finally, when Min-gee was asked for her top pick, she grabbed Seung-il by his ear, in a now-legendary scene.
In episodes 5 and 6, Seung-il and Mina Sue went off for a private talk and discussed their interest and curiosity about each other. Min-gee seemed upset, but she still told both him and Mina Sue to explore their options, since that's part of the show. Still, Seung-il couldn't seem to get his mind off Min-gee. After winning the Fight for the Ball challenge in episode 6, he surprised Min-gee when he chose her for the special meal date.
Throughout episode 7, Seung-il's affections are still split. As he and Min-gee shared fried chicken, he revealed that he chose her for the date because she had said she was craving fried chicken the previous night. However, he also admitted he would've chosen Mina Sue if the prize were Paradise. The second week of episodes ends with Mina Sue choosing which man to take to Paradise, but it's unclear whether she'll choose Seung-il. She had spent the past three episodes confusing Min-gee (and the host panel), as her interest seemed to constantly shift between the men. Viewers have to wait until February 3 to see whether Seung-il and Mina Sue will end up in Paradise.
