Korean track and field athletes are realistic in Rio
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Sprinter Kim Kuk-young celebrates after setting new Korean record in the men’s 100 meter sprint during the Gwangju Universiade in this July 9, 2015, file photo. / Courtesy of Gwangju Universiade Organizing Committee
By Nam Hyun-woo
South Korea has been enthusiastic for the Summer Olympics for 28 years since hosting the 1988 Seoul Games and has posted noticeable results in many sports during that period, bouncing around from fourth to 12th place on the medal table. The country’s athletes made a third consecutive top 10 finish since the Athens Games in 2004 and now seek to extend it to a fourth in Rio de Janeiro.
Such feats were possible because of the 225 medals that the South Koreans have clinched since the 1984 Games. Medals have come from various sports, but not many from the realm of athletics, which tests participants’ fundamental athletic skills such as running, jumping and throwing, and has the most medals up for grabs among Olympic sports.
Except for marathon, South Koreans have never reached the Olympic track and field podium. Hwang Young-cho, who won a gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games marathon, and Lee Bong-ju, who bagged an Atlanta Games marathon silver medal, are the only athletics medalists for the Republic of Korea, while Sohn Kee-chung and Nam Sung-yong collected a gold and a bronze, respectively, at the 1936 Berlin Games when Korea was under Japanese colonial rule.
The situation in Rio is not so different from past Olympics. International and domestic media outlets, betting firms and even insurance companies make their predictions on the South Koreans and none of them assure that a Korean Olympian will grab one of 141 medals in athletics at the Rio Games. The Korean Olympic Committee also set its target plainly, looking for one medal in long jump.
Under such a discouraging environment, South Korean track and field athletes set smaller but more realistic goals at the Games, such as setting new national records or passing the preliminary round.
Kim Kuk-young, 25, is one of them. The runner recently gave up preparing for the 200 meter race to focus on the 100 meter and break his own national record of 10.16 seconds at the distance, which was set during the Gwangju Universiade last year. What he seeks at the Rio Games is lowering the first decimal figure from one to zero so that he can improve his record to a nine-second level down the road.
The bid seems humble because accomplishing it will not guarantee the Olympic debutant a berth in the Olympic final round. A 10-second record is slower than Usain Bolt’s 9.58 seconds by 0.42 seconds — a huge gap for a race in which the winner is oftentimes determined by a 0.01-second difference.
“I know it would be the first and the last Olympic stage, ”Kim said in an interview with a Korean sports news outlet. “I believe everyone on this planet holds the prejudice that a nine-second record is impossible for a Korean. And I really want to break that prejudice and I believe one day I can accomplish that.”
Long jumper Kim Deok-hyeon, 31, is now looking for his third Olympic tournament and a medal in long jump. In Rio, the 2010 Asian Games long jump gold medalist will also participate in the triple jump, becoming the first Korean to compete in more than two athletics events.
His personal best — and the national record — is 8.22 meters set on June 10, improving his previous record by 0.02 meters. The distance is No. 15 on the International Association of Athletics Federations’ 2016 men’s long jump records.
Kim’s 8.22-meter record lags 20 to 30 centimeters behind compared to No. 1 Jarrion Lawson’s 8.58 meters or Marquise Goodwin’s 8.45 meters, but jumpers’ records at the Olympic stage have not been as good as their usual records. The 2012 Games men’s long jump gold medalist Greg Rutherford reached 8.31 meters and runner-up Michael Watt jumped 8.16 meters.
If Kim jumped 8.22 meters at the previous Games, during which he suffered a ligament injury, he could have been the first non-marathon Korean medalist in athletics. This is an easily refutable hypothesis, but encourages Kim who said the Rio Games would be his last Olympic competition and does not want to have anything to regret after the Games.
Perhaps, their underdog stories may not see a happy ending and opinions will be voiced again that South Korea should better support its track and field athletes.
After the past several international multisport events, concerns have been raised over the slow progress in Korean athletics, with the strength in marathon even declining. Some former athletes, such as Lee Bong-ju, stresses the power of grit and mental strength, while others underscore more scientific assistance is required to nurture future talent.
Athletes of neighboring countries, such as Japan and China, have shown noticeable results in track and field, after developing nationwide support. At the 2004 Athens Games, China’s Liu Xiang set the world record of 12.91 in men’s 110 meter hurdles and clinched the gold, breaking the stereotype that Asians are not good at athletics.