Budding Olympians dream big ahead of Paris Games

Kang Kyung-min embraces the pressure of being part of the sole Korean handball team at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Other athletes, including swimmer Hwang Sun-woo and weightlifter Park Hye-jeong, seek to end medal droughts in their respective sports.

From left: Swimmer Hwang Sun-woo, weightlifter Park Hye-jeong, fencer Yoon Ji-su, handball player Kang Kyung-min, fencers Gu Bon-gil, Song Se-ra and Oh Sang-uk pose for a photo with the T-torch at SK-T Tower in central Seoul on Saturday. [YONHAP]

Handball player Kang Kyung-min is unfazed to be part of the sole team that will represent Korea at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“Our players have a little bit of pressure for being the only team to play, but if we perform like we have practiced, I think the Paris Olympics will be fun, so I want all the players to be in action with that thought in their mind,” Kang said at an event Saturday for athletes sponsored by SK Group. “I was pressured when I saw multiple articles [about the women’s handball team being the only team to represent Korea], but now I have excitement rather than pressure, and I think it will be fun.”

Seven Korean athletes from four different disciplines — handball player Kang, swimmer Hwang Sun-woo, weightlifter Park Hye-jeong and fencers Gu Bon-gil, Song Se-ra, Yoon Ji-su and Oh Sang-uk — attended a media day at SK-T Tower in central Seoul on Saturday to discuss the upcoming Games.

Handball player Kang Kyung-min speaks during a media day at SK-T Tower in central Seoul on Saturday. [YONHAP]

Kang and the handball team are under even more pressure than the other budding Olympians, as all the Korean sides from other team sports — including popular picks football and volleyball — failed to qualify.

The handball team heads to Paris on the back of a silver medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year. Korea will face Norway, Germany, Slovenia, Sweden and Denmark in Group A, with the top four teams advancing to the quarterfinals.

“I think Norway will be the toughest opponent in our group,” Kang said.

The Norwegian women’s team has collected seven Olympic medals, one more than Korea. Winning another medal this year will be a fifth straight medal for Norway, having won two gold and two bronze since 2008.

For Korea, it will be their first medal since bronze in 2008.

Over in swimming, medaling this year will end a 12-year medal drought that has lasted since Korean swimming legend Park Tae-hwan won two silvers at the 2012 Olympics.

Hwang is a strong contender to become the second Korean to medal in the sport after Park, as the 21-year-old won six medals — two gold, two silver, and two bronze — at the Hangzhou Asian Games and four medals across three world championships since he failed to medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

“ Winning a gold and silver at the Doha World Championships [in February] brought a positive impact,” Hwang said. “I don’t know how fit I will be at the Paris Olympics, but since I have done well so far without injury, I go into training with the mindset that I will do well at the Olympics.”

Hwang Sun-woo, right, reacts after winning the men's 200-meter freestyle final at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar on Feb. 13. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

An Olympic medal is the only medal missing from Hwang’s collection.

“If I do win gold [at the Olympics], that will mean winning a gold medal at every major tournament and accomplishing the ‘grand slam,’ so I will have to prepare well to attempt that goal, and I think I will set my next goals after the Olympics is over,” Hwang said.

For weightlifter Park Hye-jeong, winning an Olympic gold would be her fourth time at the top of an international podium, after the World Weightlifting Championships and Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023 and Asian Weightlifting Championships in February — all in the women’s 87-kilogram class.

Weightlifter Park Hye-jeong poses for a photo during an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo at the Jincheon National Training Center in Jincheon, North Chungcheong on May 29. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Park is known as the next Jang Mi-ran after the eponymous weightlifter who won three Olympic medals, before becoming Second Vice Minister of Sports.

“I feel like the nickname of ‘next Jang Mi-ran’ means I have to follow in her footsteps, and that nickname gives me a little pressure, but I think I am trying to have a responsibility as an athlete and enjoy the pressure,” Park said.

Four fencers Gu, Song, Yoon and Oh, meanwhile, are up for another Olympic medal this year after securing one medal apiece at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

A gold for Gu in Paris will add a third Olympic gold to an already medal-rich cabinet that includes medals from the Asian Games and World Fencing Championships.

Fencer Gu Bon-gil reacts during the men's sabre final at the Hangzhou Asian Games in Hangzhou, China on Sept. 28, 2023. [YONHAP]

“The Olympics is around the corner,” SK Telecom Communication Vice President Kim Hee-sup said. “We hope we can meet you [athletes] all once you return to the country in August. The time to show the effort that you have put in over the past three to four years has come. It will be best if you all win gold, but I hope the effort you have put in turns into good results, and I want you to do well without getting injured or leaving regrets and deliver our nation enjoyment and excitement.”

The Paris Olympics will run from July 26 through Aug. 11, with around 10,500 competitors set to participate across 32 sports.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]