By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
South Korean athletes will seek a top-10 finish in the Summer Olympics for the second straight time at the 2008 Beijing Games.
As of Jan. 1, there are 121 Korean athletes who have earned berths to 15 out of 28 events in the Games, which begin Aug. 8.
It was the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 that South Korea ranked in the top 10 for the first time since it first entered the Olympics at the 1948 Games in London.
And four years later, South Koreans surprised the world, taking fourth in the gold medal count at home in Seoul.
At the next two Olympics in Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta in 1996, the Korean squad continued to finish in the top 10, coming in seventh and 10th, respectively.
Although they dropped to 12th at the Sydney Games in 2000, the Koreans rebounded to place ninth with nine gold, 12 silver and nine bronze medals at the last Olympic competition in Athens.
To stay among the group of the world's sports powers, South Korea needs to clinch at least 10 gold medals in Beijing, which is the third Asian city to host an Olympics, following Tokyo in 1964 and Seoul.
Archery and taekwondo are expected to help Korea achieve its top-10 goal.
The Korean archery team, which won three golds out of four in Athens, is gunning to sweep all four this year.
The men's and women's teams will select their three finalists in March or April. Park Sung-hyun, who had two gold medals in the women's individual and team events in Athens, Choi Eun-young and prospect Lee Tuk-young are top candidates.
On the men's side, world gold medallist Im Dong-hyun and Park Kyung-mo, who won a gold medal in the team event at the Doha Asian Games in 2006, will have their shots at an Olympic gold medal.
In taekwondo, Korea has four entries in Beijing in the men's 68-kilogram and over-80kg divisions and the women's 57kg and 67kg classes.
The quota for each country is two each for men and women.
Two-time world champion Hwang Kyung-seon, who also won a bronze medal in Athens, and Son Tae-jin will try to bring two golds to Korea in the women's 67kg and the men's 68kg divisions, respectively.
Athens gold medallist Moon Dae-sung, who ended his retirement for the Beijing Games, will compete in the over-80kg class during the final Olympic qualifier in February.
Park Tae-hwan will attempt to become the first South Korean to win a swimming medal in the Olympics.
The 18-year-old, who took the first podium finish at the World Championship in Melbourne, Australia, in March of 2007, will race in the 400-meter and 1,500- meter freestyle events.
After having three gold medals at three straight World Cup series meets, he is expected to double.
In addition, Korean athletes competing in weightlifting, gymnastics, judo and wrestling are in contention for gold medals.
Three-time defending weightlifting world champion Jang Mi-ran will set her eye on her first gold medal in the Olympics, when she faces rival Mu Shuangshuang of China. Jang, 24, finished second behind Mu four years ago.
Gymnasts Kim Dae-eun and Yang Tae-young will retry for the top spot they failed to gain in Athens, where Kim took silver, while Yang managed a bronze medal, despite controversial judges.
Judoist Lee Won-hee, table tennis player Ryu Seung-min and wrestler Jung Ji-hyun will look to repeat as medallists.
In this Olympics, which will return to the Asian continent for the first time since the 1988 Games in Seoul, high-profile athletes will star in Beijing, showing off their prowess for the world.
Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang will try to provide the people of his home country with joy. Along with the Olympic gold in 2004, he topped the world championship in Osaka, Japan, last August to become the first Asian to achieve both feats. Besides, the 24-year-old sprinter holds the world record in the 110-meter hurdles of 12.88 seconds.
In the men's 100 meters, Tyson Gay of the United States and Asafa Powell of Jamaica will have a return match. Gay, 25, beat the world-record holder, Powell, in Osaka to become the first sprinter to hit the sprint treble at a world championship meet since compatriot Maurice Greene achieved it in 1999.
Star pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia will try to provide the Chinese people with enjoyment, too.
In swimming, American Michael Phelps will go after eight gold medals. The 22-year-old, who claimed seven at the last World Championships in Melbourne, is poised to break Mark Spitz's mark of seven golds, a 36-year-old record for the most golds in a single Olympics.
Four-time judo world champion Kye Sun-hui, who brought the first Olympic gold medal to North Korea in 1996, is pursuing a second, while Japan's Ryoko Tani is seeking her third gold.
In table tennis, China's Wang Hao will aim at avenging his defeat to Ryu Seung-min in the final of the Athens contest.
Men's basketball will continue attracting Olympic fans. The United States will field its leagues' best players, such as LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers and Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic. The Americans will try to repair their damaged reputation from Athens, where they suffered their first Olympic basketball loss since 1992, when National Basketball Association (NBA) players started competing in the Olympics. The U.S. had to settle for an Athens bronze medal.
China's NBA product, Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets, will labor to stop the U.S. team from running away.