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| Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun, center, reacts after South Korean women's archery team won a gold medal in the 2020 Summer Olympics at the Yumenoshima Park Archery Field in Tokyo, Sunday. Yonhap |
Top automotive group sponsors archers since 1985
By Baek Byung-yeul
The South Korean archery team has been in the spotlight as the national team has clinched three gold medals so far at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics thanks in part to the devoted support of Hyundai Motor Group.
The automotive giant is widely known for its ardent support of the country's archery, as it has been sponsoring archers here since 1985. Thanks to the group's financial and technical support, South Korea has shown its utter dominance at the Games over the past 35 years, winning 26 gold, nine silver and seven bronze medals as of Tuesday.
The relationship between Hyundai Motor and archery began with Honorary Chairman Chung Mong-koo, who decided to support South Korean archers after watching Seo Hyang-soon win a gold medal in the women's individual archery event at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Chung, who was president of Hyundai Precision & Industries ― now called Hyundai Mobis ― became chairman of the Korea Archery Association and launched a women's archery team at Hyundai Precision, and a men's team at Hyundai Steel.
The honorary chairman laid the foundations for the South Korea's development in the sport of archery, introducing scientific equipment and conducting research and development activities to improve athletes' performance.
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| Kim Je-deok, left, and An San celebrate after beating Gabriela Schloesser and Steve Wijler of the Netherlands in archery's mixed team final at Yumenoshima Park Archery Field during the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, July 24. Yonhap |
The honorary chairman's efforts to support the country's archery were followed by his son, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun who has served as chairman of the Korea Archery Association since 2005.
As chief of the archery association, the chairman visited Tokyo on his way back from a business trip in the United States, to root for the South Korean national archery team members.
A Hyundai Motor Group official said this was Chung's second visit to Yumenoshima Park Archery Field in Tokyo, following his first visit in 2019 when he attended an archery test event.
"Chairman Chung visited the venue in 2019 to support the national team. During his visit, he also checked conditions of the archery field and the athletes' village there," the official said.
"After returning to Korea, the chairman ordered construction of a facility similar to the archery field in Tokyo and held a mock competition at Jincheon National Training Center," he added.
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| Members of South Korean men's archery team celebrate after beating Taiwan at the final during the Tokyo Olympics in Yumenoshima Park Archery Field, Tokyo, July 26. Yonhap |
Behind the South Korean archery team's success in Tokyo, there is the innovative technical support of Hyundai Motor Group.
The support project began under Chairman Chung's strong desire to help the team extend its dominance at the Tokyo Games.
Even though the archery team had already established itself as the world's strongest, the chairman thought the group's technological knowhow could improve the archers' skills even more, the group official said.
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| Members of Korean women's archery team hold their national flag after winning the gold medal during the Tokyo Games at Yumenoshima Archery Field, Tokyo, July 25. Reuters-Yonhap |
Based on the group's R&D capabilities, training equipment for archers has been upgraded. For instance, Hyundai Motor Group and the Korea Archery Association jointly developed a shooting machine that helps archers find the bow best suited for them.
An automatic score recording system is another example as the device developed by the automotive group automatically displays the scores of each player. The data is stored in a data center of the training center to be used to analyze, inspect and guide each player's performance.
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