Women’s national archery team. /News1 DB ⓒ News1 Reporter Lee Dong-hae
(Seoul = News 1) Reporter Kwon Hyuk-jun = The 2024 Paris Olympics are just one month away. The Korean team has always placed within the top 10th overall score since its 10th place finish at the 1984 LA Olympics, but this tournament has a somewhat different atmosphere.

Lee Ki-heung, president of the Korea Sports Council, already predicted the expected number of gold medals at last year’s Paris Olympics to be around 5 to 6, and this goal has not changed until now. This means that the people watching and cheering must also lower their realistic expectations.

First of all, the number of challengers decreased. It seems unlikely that the maximum number of athletes to be dispatched will exceed 150. This is because most ball sports, such as soccer, volleyball, and basketball, did not secure participation rights. Among the team ball sports, the only one that can be seen at the Paris Olympics is women’s handball.

The number of players under 150 is the lowest ever since 50 players were sent to the Montreal Games in 1976. After Korea did not participate in the 1980 Moscow Games, 210 people participated in the 1984 LA Games and 477 people participated in the 1988 Seoul Games. Afterwards, a team of 200 to 300 athletes was consistently dispatched until the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but this time the size was significantly reduced.

The status of Korean sports on the international stage had already fallen significantly at the last Tokyo Games. At the time, it ranked 16th overall (6 gold, 4 silver, 10 bronze), falling out of the top 10 in the overall rankings for the first time since the 2000 Sydney Olympics (8 gold, 10 silver, 10 bronze).

Considering the size of the athletes and the prospects for each sport, there is a high possibility that the Paris Olympics will be similar to or even worse than the Tokyo Olympics. In the worst case, there is even a gloomy outlook that the country may be pushed out of the top 20 overall.

The Korean men’s saber team’s Oh Sang-wook (from left), Do Gyeong-dong, Koo Bon-gil, and Park Sang-won are taking a commemorative photo at the ‘2024 Paris Olympics National Fencing Team Media Day’ held at the Jincheon National Athlete’s Village in North Chungcheong Province on the 27th. 2024.5.27/News1 ⓒ News1 Reporter Lee Dong-hae
First of all, the sports we are looking forward to in the current situation are archery and fencing. Archery is still a strong sport, winning four out of six gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, and fencing is also showing off its high international competitiveness, with men’s saber and women’s epee winning gold medals in Tokyo.

However, it is also true that because all the attention and expectations are concentrated, athletes in the sport feel quite a bit of pressure.

In fact, in the case of the archery team, after confirming the Olympic participation list, they showed a sensitive reaction by refusing to engage in any media activities, such as press conferences, when their performance was somewhat poor at international competitions. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>

In fencing, the Korea Sports Council is also expecting at least two gold medals, but in its own evaluation, it is realistic to add silver and bronze medals to one gold medal.

The Olympics are starting with lower expectations than previous years, but on the contrary, this means that those who are considered one of the few gold medal candidates have no choice but to shoulder a greater burden.

National swimmer Kim Woo-min (left) and Hwang Sun-woo are being interviewed at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics national swimming team media day held at the Jincheon National Athletes’ Village Swimming Center in Jincheon-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do on the afternoon of the 18th. 2024.6.18/News1 ⓒ News1 Reporter Park Jeong-ho
Still, you can’t ‘go in’ before you even start. The athletes have put in their best effort to prepare for the Paris Olympics and are confident that they can achieve results that exceed expectations. Rather, a crisis can be turned into an opportunity.

For some sports, it is okay to have expectations that go beyond simple confidence. Starting with Ahn Se-young in the women’s badminton singles, Hwang Sun-woo and Kim Woo-min in swimming, and Park Tae-jun in the men’s 58kg taekwondo class, they can aim for at least a medal, or even a gold medal depending on the situation.

Kim Ye-ji in shooting and modern pentathlon men’s relay (Jeon Woong-tae and Seo Chang-wan) are also people with potential.

If 5-6 gold medals are won as initially expected, it is virtually difficult to enter the top 10 overall, but if additional gold medals are obtained in events other than archery and fencing, entering the top 10 is not an impossible goal.

2024-06-24 21:02:54
#Realistic #goal #gold #medals.. #Korean #sports #overcome #crisis올림픽 #D30 #②

Related