Golden chances for Team Korea at Rio

By Baek Byung-yeul

The 31st Summer Olympics will kick off its 17-day run in Rio de Janeiro, Saturday (KST), with some 11,000 athletes from 206 countries competing for 306 gold medals in 28 sports.

Brazil has organized the quadrennial global sporting event with the slogan of “A New World” in a bid to build a better world, but it remains to be seen whether South America’s first-ever Olympics can finish without suffering any incidents from as terrorism, the Zika virus or civil unrest.

South Korea is fielding 204 athletes competing in 24 sports and 127 board members aiming to clinch at least 10 gold medals, which would be the country’s fourth consecutive 10 Olympic golds finish.

Starting from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, South Korea has had 10 gold medals in the past seven Games except for the 2000 Sydney Olympics where it only won eight. The country claimed its most gold medals in the 2012 London Olympics with 13.

At the opening ceremony, which will take place at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro at 7 a.m. Saturday morning (KST), fencer Gu Bon-gil will lead the South Korean delegation as flag bearer. Gu was a member of the gold medal-winning men’s sabre team at the 2012 London Games.

Shooter Jin Jong-oh, who bagged three gold medals in the past two Olympic Games, has been named as the captain for the male athletes while veteran handball player Oh Yong-ran will lead the female athletes.

Born in 1979, Jin is the oldest male athlete in the delegation. He aims to become the first Korean to win gold medals in three consecutive Olympics. The 43-year-old Oh, the oldest South Korean athlete in Rio, set the record for the most Olympic appearances for South Korea, appearing in five Games in 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2016. The Rio Games will become a family trip for weightlifting couple of Won Jeong-sik and Yoon Jin-hee, while An Jae-hyung and his son Byeong-hun join the Games, the father as coach of the South Korean table tennis team, and the son a golfer on the team.

Though the Olympics will officially kick off Saturday morning, South Korea will begin Friday as there will be a Group C men’s football match between South Korea and Fiji at Fonte Nova Arena in Salvador. Besides Fiji, South Korea has been paired with Germany and Mexico. South Korea, which took bronze at the London Games, has set the same goal -- to get on the Olympic podium once again. The team is scheduled to play Germany on Aug. 8 and Mexico on Aug. 11.

Jin to lead medal hunt

South Korea’s medal hunt will begin in earnest on Sunday as sharp shooter Jin will try to defend his 10 meter air pistol gold medal.

Making his first Olympics appearance in 2004, Jin has won three gold medals -- men’s 50 meter pistol in 2008 and 2012 and men’s 10 meter air pistol in 2012. “I’ve heard that no shooter has yet to win gold medals in three consecutive Olympics, so if I could add another gold at Rio, it would be a great honor for me,” Jin said at a 100-day countdown conference in Seoul.

The men’s archery team comprised of Kim Woo-jin, Ku Bon-chan and Lee Seung-yun, will also challenge for gold Sunday. While archery is one of South Korea’s traditional Olympic goldmines, the men’s archery team finished third four years ago. Comprising three male and three female athletes, the Korean archery team aims to sweep all four archery medals in Rio -- men’s and women’s individual and team competitions.

Swimmer Park Tae-hwan, who recently won a legal battle to get the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) ban on him lifted, will swim for his third consecutive Olympic medal in the men’s 400 meter freestyle. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Park became the first Asian swimmer to win gold in the event and added silver in 2012.

On Monday, the women’s archery team will try to defend their gold medal for the eighth time in a row. In judo, An Ba-ul will compete in the men’s 66 kg competition.

South Korean judokas will continue the quest for medals Tuesday as An Chang-rim and Kim Jan-di will compete in the men’s 73 kg and the women’s 57 kg events. Fencer Kim Ji-yeon will be competing in the women’s individual sabre event.

On Wednesday, Kim Jang-mi will try to defend her gold medal in the women’s 25 meter pistol event. On Thursday shooter Jin will compete in the men’s 50 meter pistol while Gwak Dong-han targets gold in men’s 90 kg judo. Fencer Gu will be competing in the men’s individual sabre.

On Friday, archers Ki Bo-bae, Choi Mi-sun and Chang Hye-jin will draw their bows in the womens’ individual event while male archers will compete in individual archery the following day.

Wrestling, another traditional Olympic goldmine for South Korea, will begin Aug. 15 as Lee Jung-baik and Kim Hyeon-woo will compete in the Greco-Roman men’s 59 kg and 75 kg events; while Ryu Han-su will compete in the 66 kg event, Aug. 17.

Taekwondo, the Korean martial art event, will start Aug. 18. South Korea expects medals from Kim Tae-hun in the men’s 58 kg and Kim So-hui in the women’s 49 kg, Aug. 18; and Lee Dae-hoon in the men’s 68 kg, Aug. 19. The World No. 1 men’s badminton duo of Lee Yong-dae and Yoo Yeon-seong will compete in the men’s doubles, also starting Aug. 19.

Son Yeon-jae will try to bring South Korea’s first-ever Olympic medal in rhythmic gymnastics, which will begin Aug. 19.