Korea's golden archers shoot for 10th straight Games on top

A brand new women’s team will look to win gold for the 10th straight time, with all three members headed to Paris as first-time Olympians.

Lim Si-hyeon prepares her shot at a special match before a K League game at Jeonju World Cup Stadium in Jeonju, North Jeolla on June 29. [NEWS1]

Six Korean archers will look to keep Korea at the top of the medal table for a 10th straight Olympics, even as they head to Paris without their main character in Tokyo, An San.

Korea has been the most successful nation in archery since the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and Korean archers hold the Olympic record in every individual and team event.

An won all three of her events at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first-ever archer to do so at the Games, but failed to make this year’s Korean national team at the qualifying trials.

Instead, Jeon Hun-young, Lim Si-hyeon and Nam Suh-yun will compete for Korea in the women’s contest while Kim Woo-jin, Lee Woo-seok and Kim Je-deok will shoot in the men’s competition.

Archery runs from July 25 to Aug. 4 at the 2024 Paris Olympics across five categories — men’s and women’s individual, men’s and women’s team and mixed team.

The men’s team is a familiar one. Paris will see the return of Kim Woo-jin and Kim Je-deok, both of whom who helped lift Korea to a gold medal in the men’s team event in Tokyo.

Members of the Korean men's national archery team Kim Woo-jin, left, Lee Woo-seok and Kim Je-deok depart from Incheon International Airport in Incheon on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

Kim Je-deok, who was the youngest member of the 2020 national archery team at 17 years old, partnered with An for a gold medal in the inaugural mixed team contest. And Kim Woo-jin already had a gold medal from the men’s team event in Rio in 2016.

It will be the first senior Olympics for Lee, 26, who was part of Korea’s gold medal-winning men’s recurve team at the 2023 World Archery Championships with the two Kims.

A brand new women’s team will look to win gold for the 10th straight time, with all three members headed to Paris as first-time Olympians.

Lim, 21, is the highest-ranked Korean archer, sitting at No. 2 in women’s recurve ahead of the competition in Paris. She won gold in the mixed team recurve event at the 2023 World Archery Championships alongside veteran Kim Woo-jin.

Jeon, 30, sits at No. 21 and Nam, 19, is at No. 61 in women’s recurve. Both have helped lift Korea to gold and silver-medal finishes at multiple World Cups — competitions on the international archery circuit — this year.

Jeon Hun-young, left, Lim Si-hyeon and Nam Suh-yun of the national archery team cheer during a special match ahead of a K League game at Jeonju World Cup Stadium in Jeonju, North Jeolla on June 29. [NEWS1]

Recurve, the traditional bow, is the only archery discipline contested at the Olympics. Other international competitions also feature compound, a more modern bow.

Archers use the bow to shoot arrows over a long distance with immense focus to attempt to hit the 10-point bullseye in the middle of the circle. If the arrow lands on the line of the target board, the higher number is always rewarded.

The target is 122 centimeters in diameter and is set 70 meters away from the archers.

The individual competitions start with 64 archers, each shooting 72 arrows to determine their place in the standings.

Then, the top seed faces off against the bottom seed, the second top seed faces off against the second bottom seed and so on.

The single elimination bracket continues until there are only two competitors for the final.

All three team events also use the initial 72 arrows fired to determine each team’s standing.

The top four teams from a total 12 teams receive byes to the quarterfinal stage. The other eight teams compete in a single elimination bracket for the final four quarterfinal spots.

Each match consists of five individual rounds, or sets, for each event.

For individual matches, archers shoot three arrows per round, and the aggregate score determines the winner.

For mixed events, four arrows per team determine the winner for a set. Team events require six arrows per set.

Korea has dominated archery at the Olympics with a total 49 medals, including 27 gold.

BY MARY YANG, KEVIN CHUNG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]