South Korean women’s archery standout Im Si Hyun (21, Korea Gymnastics Team) is competing in her first Olympic Games in Paris. She is determined to win a gold medal and promises to help South Korea win an unprecedented five gold medals.
“The Olympics is the stage where everyone wants to play, and I’m in that position,” he said after the national encouragement event for the ‘D-100 for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics’ held at the Champion House at the Jincheon National Athletes’ Village in Chungcheongbuk-do on Sunday. “I will prepare hard for the rest of the year and come back with good results in Paris.”
Lim made last year’s Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games her own. She won the recurve mixed team and women’s team titles, as well as the women’s individual title.
In the women’s individual final, she defeated three-time Olympic champion An San of Tokyo 6-0. It was a spectacular introduction to the new ace of Korean women’s archery.
It’s been 37 years since South Korea has had a triple gold medalist in archery at the Asian Games, and Im is the fourth since Yang Chang-hoon (4 golds), Kim Jin-ho (3 golds) and Park Jung-ah (3 golds) at the 1986 Seoul Games. She also became the first South Korean athlete to win a gold medal in the women’s individual archery event in nine years, since the 2014 Incheon Games.
Im took first place in all three rounds of the 2024 National Team Trials at the Gwangju International Archery Center last month. She totaled 55 points, beating out runner-up Im Hae-jin (46), third-place Yeom Hye-jung (45), fourth-place Oh Ye-jin (44.5) and fifth-place Jeon Hoon-young (44) by a wide margin.
Im will look to build on her momentum and win at least two gold medals in Paris. She hopes to reach the top of the podium in both the women’s team and individual events.
There are five gold medals up for grabs in archery at the Paris Games: men’s individual and team, women’s individual and team, and mixed team. Im is confident that the men’s and women’s teams can sweep the gold medals in Paris. South Korean archery swept all events at the 2016 Rio Olympics, when the country won four gold medals without a mixed team event. At Tokyo 2020, the mixed team event was added to the program and South Korea won five gold medals, but missed out on the men’s individual gold.
At the event, Korean Sports Ministry President Lee Ki-heung said he expects five gold medals for South Korea in Paris. That’s one less than the six the country won at the last Olympics in Tokyo in 2021, but it’s a more realistic projection than an 메이저토토사이트 optimistic one.
A sweep by Korean archery would likely increase the total number of gold medals for the entire Korean team.
“We will do our best to prepare as well for the Paris Olympics as we did for the Hangzhou Asian Games,” said Lim, adding that the archery team is aiming to win five gold medals.
“My personal goal is to win the (women’s) team title. I will also try my best in the individual events,” she said, adding, “The women’s team hasn’t had much time to work together as a team yet, so we will prepare well both technically and mentally.”
Im is particularly focused on the women’s team, which has won 10 consecutive team titles. South Korean women’s archery has won nine consecutive team gold medals, starting at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and continuing to Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016, and Tokyo 2020.
“We will do our best not to break the path that our seniors have done so well,” said Im, adding, “We are not without responsibility and pressure, but we are with players who have been fairly selected through the national team selection process. I believe that if we play well together without any anxiety, we will be able to bring home good results.”