Korea wins several gold medals in ‘weapons’ events at Paris Olympics

Ban Hyo-jin smiles and waves her hand after winning the gold medal in the women\'s 10-meter air rifle final at the Paris Olympics at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, France, on July 29. Reporter Sung Dong-hoon

After Korea won its 10th consecutive gold medal in women's team archery at this year’s Paris Olympics and shooter Ban Hyo-jin added Korea’s 100th gold medal in its Summer Games history, people joked online that “Korea is a country specialized for fighting.” Korea failed to advance to the Olympic finals in all ball games except women's handball, but Korean players won the gold medals early in the Games in the “weapons” events. On the afternoon of July 29, when Ban won Korea’s fourth gold medal of this year’s Olympics, Korea was tied for first place in the overall medal tally with Japan.

Oh Sang-uk won Korea’s first gold medal of the Games on the 28th, defeating Fares Ferjani of Tunisia in the men's sabre final. Oh, who won gold in the team sabre event at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, earned his first individual gold medal and won a grand slam title in major competitions.

In shooting, the gold medals poured in over the two days. Oh Ye-jin and Kim Ye-ji stood on the podium side by side after finishing the women's 10-meter air rifle final in first and second place, respectively, on the 28th. While Kim was considered the favorite to win the gold medal, Oh, who was a rookie first appeared in international competitions last year, won the gold medal with a new Olympic record (243.2 points). She was also nicknamed "Secret Weapon."

On the 29th, “shooting genius” Ban Hyo-jin added another gold medal in the women's 10-meter air rifle final. Ban, who began her career as a shooter about three years ago, won Korea’s 100th gold medal in its Summer Olympics history after a nail-biting shoot-off against Huang Yuting of China, winning by 0.1 points. She also broke the record for Korea’s youngest Summer Olympics medalist.

Including the silver medal in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event on the 27th, Korea already secured two gold medals and two silver medals in this year’s shooting events. Three years ago in the Tokyo Olympics, Korea won only one silver medal in shooting.

The Korean women's archery trio of Lim Si-hyeon, Nam Su-hyeon, and Jeon Hun-young succeeded in winning the 10th consecutive gold medal in the team event on the 29th, which will go down in history.

In both the semifinals and the final, the trio was unwavering in a breathtaking shoot-off and achieved the milestone with "strong heart." They were praised as the “best in the universe,” beyond the “best in the world.”

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.