Korean men pull each other to capture archery world title at home
From left, Lee Woo-seok, Kim Woo-jin and Kim Je-deok of South Korea celebrate after winning the gold medal in the recurve men's team event at the World Archery Championships at the May 18 Democracy Plaza in Gwangju, 270 kilometers south of Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap
GWANGJU — While preparing for his first world championship on home soil this month, South Korean recurve archer Lee Woo-seok felt so stressed out that he even had to check into an emergency room with an illness.
Even with years of international experience, which includes winning the men's team gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the pressure of competing at the World Archery Championships at home, and doing so for one of the biggest archery powers at that, proved too much for the 28-year-old.
Lee leaned on his two teammates, Kim Woo-jin and Kim Je-deok, for some moral support. That they have been together for several years and won the 2024 Olympic medal together certainly helped.
And Wednesday at the May 18 Democracy Plaza in Gwangju, 270 kilometers south of Seoul, the trio added another title to their resume by beating the United States in the men's team final 6-0 (56-55, 57-55, 59-56).
"I am still not 100 percent healthy, and I was worried that I was going to hurt the team," Lee said afterword. "So I kept asking Woo-jin and Je-deok to feed me some positive words and take some pressure off of me."
Those two teammates obliged, and by the time the final rolled around Wednesday afternoon, Lee felt well enough to shoot three 10s out of his six arrows and help South Korea earn its third straight world title in the men's recurve team event.
"I guess I won't have to hear any more words from the guys," Lee said with a smile. "This is my first world championship at home and our biggest goal was to win the team title. My teammates really covered my back here."
Kim Woo-jin, the elder statesman on the team at 33, acknowledged the constant pressure on South Korean archers at international events.
"I think the expectations grew even bigger after the Olympics last year, and it's always tough for us to try to live up to them," he said. "I tried to remind my teammates that we can't get too caught up with this event and we just have to do our thing because this isn't going to be our only competition and we have more Asian Games and Olympics coming up."
Kim Je-deok, the youngest member at 21, said he tried to be the shoulder that Lee could lean on.
"I kept telling him he only had to worry about the process and not so much about the results," he said. "I told him to relax because we've been doing this together for three or four years and we know what we're capable of doing."
And they were capable of beating the U.S. side featuring world No. 1 Brady Ellison without dropping a set.
The victory eased the pain of some earlier losses for Kim Woo-jin, who was eliminated in the round of 32 in the individual event and then lost in the final of the mixed team event earlier Wednesday.
One of South Korea's most decorated athletes with five Olympic gold medals and 10 world titles, Kim shrugged off those losses and said, "It could happen to anyone."
"This is what sports are all about. If everyone knew the results ahead of time, no one would be watching and cheering," Kim said. "You can reach the peak but it's hard to stay at the top for a long time. I will have to try harder."
Lee and Kim Je-deok have made it to the round of 16 in the individual event. Both said they will now be able to compete free of pressure, having already bagged the team gold.
After taking their spots on the top of the podium Wednesday, the three archers took a moment of silence to pay their tribute to the late national team coach Park Sung-soo, who died on Aug. 27 at age 55.
Park guided these three archers to the men's gold at the Paris Olympics, while Kim Woo-jin also won the men's individual and the mixed team gold medals under Park's tutelage.
"We took a brief moment of silence during the medal ceremony," Kim said. "We were able to pay our respects for him from the top of the podium."