Judoka not content with bronze in Paris, eyes gold in LA

PARIS-- Since making his senior international debut in 2022, South Korean judoka Lee Joon-hwan has picked up two bronze medals at world championships and a silver medal at the Asian Games. Falling short of a gold medal, however, is not something Lee wants to get accustomed to. The 22-year-old captured a bronze medal in the men's -81 kilograms at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday. The third-ranked Lee defeated world No. 1 from Belgium, Matthias Casse, in one of two bronze medal contests at Cha

July 31, 2024

Lee Joon-hwan wins bronze in men's judo

PARIS -- Lee Joon-hwan claimed a bronze medal in the men's -81-kilogram judo at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday for South Korea's second medal in the sport here. Lee, world No. 3, defeated the top-ranked Matthias Casse of Belgium in one of the two bronze medal contests at Champ-de-Mars Arena in Paris. Lee scored the decisive "waza-ari," or a half point, 48 seconds into the sudden-death extra period. Lee ran into his old nemesis from Georgia, world No. 2 Tato Grigalashvili, in

July 31, 2024

S. Korea wins bronze in mixed doubles table tennis

Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin captured the bronze medal in the mixed doubles table tennis event at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, giving South Korea its first table tennis medal in 12 years. Lim and Shin defeated Wong Chun Ting and Doo Hoi Kem of Hong Kong 4-0 (11-5, 11-7, 11-7, 14-12) at South Paris Arena 4 in Paris. Both players earned their first career Olympic medals. Lim and Shin had fallen to the bronze medal match after losing to the top-seeded pair from China, Wang Chuqin and Sun Yings

July 30, 2024

S. Korea qualifies for swimming relay final for 1st time

South Korea qualified for the final of the men's 4x200-meter freestyle relay swimming at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, the country's first-ever appearance in a relay medal race. The quartet of Lee Ho-joon, Lee Yoo-yeon, Kim Yeong-hyeon and Kim Woo-min finished seventh overall in the heats with a time of 7:07.96 at Paris La Defense Arena in Nanterre, west of Paris, to punch their ticket to the final scheduled for Tuesday night. The top eight teams from the heats qualified for the final

July 30, 2024

Tall tales and theories on S. Korea's dominance in archery

South Korea on Monday notched its third-straight gold medal in the Olympic men’s team event, defeating host nation France and completing a sweep of the women's and men's team events at this year's Paris Olympics. Kim Woo-jin, Kim Je-deok and Lee Woo-seok hoisted the national flag after securing the 5-1 victory in the French capital. Since their more dominant female compatriots won the country’s 10th-straight gold in the women's team event on Sunday, Koreans have

July 30, 2024

Stings and arrows: Archer hits bullseye despite bee bother

Kim Je-deok remained calm and shot a perfect arrow despite a bee landing on the back of his hand during the men’s archery team event at the Paris Olympics on Monday. The bee distraction occurred during the semifinal against China. While the first set ended in a tie at 54 points apiece, South Korea rebounded in the second set, scoring 57 to China’s 53. The third set was crucial, as a victory would secure South Korea’s spot in the final. With the score at 36-53 and only two arr

July 30, 2024

Huh Mimi wins silver medal in judo

Huh Mimi grabbed the silver medal in the women's -57-kilogram judo competition at the Paris Olympics on Monday, giving South Korea its first medal in her sport in the French capital. Huh lost to Christa Deguchi of Canada in the final at Champ-de-Mars Arena in Paris. The two needed an extra period to determine the winner on a sudden-death, golden score. Huh and Deguchi each had two "shidos," or warnings, with a third shido ending the match in favor of the opponent. Huh was the more

July 30, 2024

S. Korea wins 3rd straight gold in men's archery team event

PARIS (Yonhap) -- South Korea claimed its third straight gold medal in the men's archery team event in Paris on Monday, after defeating the home team France in the final. The trio of Kim Woo-jin, Kim Je-deok and Lee Woo-seok secured a 5-1 victory in the set score at Invalides in the French capital. This is the third straight team gold medal for Kim Woo-jin, second straight for Kim Je-deok, and first for Lee. As the third day of competition winds down at these Olympic Games, South Korea ha

July 30, 2024

On target for improbable gold, teen shooter wants to keep growing

CHATEAUROUX, France, July 29 (Yonhap) - While dabbling at different sports growing up, Ban Hyo-jin switched from taekwondo to shooting three years ago, at age 13. It only took her a couple of weeks to realize she could be good at this new sport. And on Monday at the Paris Olympics, the rest of the world found out just how good Ban could really be. Ban, 16, captured the gold medal in the women's 10-meter air rifle event at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, south of Paris. She

July 29, 2024

Teen shooter Ban Hyo-jin wins gold in women's air rifle

Teen shooter Ban Hyo-jin captured the gold medal in the women's 10-meter air rifle at the Paris Olympics on Monday, becoming South Korea's youngest shooting medalist ever at age 16. Ban edged out Huang Yuting of China in a shoot-off, 10.4 points to 10.3 points, after the two teens tied the Olympic record with 251.8 points in the final at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, south of Paris. This was South Korea's fourth gold medal of the Paris Olympics and its 100th gold

July 29, 2024

S. Korean women archers dominate Olympics for 36 years

Since the women’s archery team event was introduced at the Olympics in 1988, South Korean women have never failed to win gold. On Sunday in Paris, they demonstrated once again their dominance, winning the 10th consecutive gold. The South Korean team, consisting of Lim Si-hyeon, Nam Su-hyeon and Jeon Hun-young, defeated China in a shoot-off to win 5-4 in the women's archery team final at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The match took place at Les Invalides in Paris on Sunday. President Yoon

July 29, 2024

Korea wins 10th consecutive gold in women's archery team event

  PARIS (Yonhap) – South Korea captured its 10th consecutive Olympic gold medal in the women's archery team event Sunday in Paris, extending the winning streak that began in its capital 36 years ago. The trio of Jeon Hun-young, Nam Su-hyeon and Lim Si-hyeon defeated China 5-4 in the set score after a nail-biting shoot-off at Invalides in Paris.   The women's team event in archery was added to the Olympics in 1988 in Seoul, and South Korea remained undefeated after holding off Chi

July 29, 2024

Pistol shooting silver medalist vows to bring home gold

A lot of athletes would love to be in Kim Ye-ji's position Sunday, with an Olympic silver medal around her neck. But Kim, after grabbing silver behind fellow South Korean Oh Ye-jin in the women's 10-meter air pistol at the Paris Olympics, didn't fly to France to finish in second place. "I am really disappointed," Kim said afterward at Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, south of Paris, though the ebullient athlete didn't look the part. "My goal was to w

July 28, 2024

S. Korea's Oh Ye-jin, Kim Ye-ji win gold, silver in women's 10m air pistol shooting

South Korean shooters Oh Ye-jin and Kim Ye-ji captured the gold and silver medals, respectively, in the women's 10-meter air pistol shooting at the Paris Summer Games on Sunday, with Oh setting an Olympic record in the process. Oh scored 243.2 points to hold off Kim by 1.9 points in the final at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, south of Paris. Manu Bhaker of India took the bronze medal with 221.7 points. Oh, 19, became the new Olympic record holder in her debut, surpassing th

July 28, 2024

Oh Sang-uk honors ex-teammates

South Korean fencer Oh Sang-uk made history at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Saturday by becoming the first South Korean to win the men’s sabre individual final. But at the moment of victory, Oh's mind was not just on gold, but also on his two retired teammates who had shared so much of his journey with him. "I grew up eating from the same pots with them, and their departure brought significant changes,” he said. "With the change in team members, we really faced a lot o

July 28, 2024

IOC chief apologizes to President Yoon over opening ceremony gaffe

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach apologized to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Saturday over an incorrect introduction of the South Korea delegation as North Korea during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, Yoon's office said. In their 10-minute phone conversation, Yoon expressed his regret over the incident and asked Bach to prevent a recurrence of similar cases. "As people of the country that has hosted the Summer and the Winter Olympic Games, alo

July 28, 2024

Decorated fencer completes career puzzle with 1st individual gold

Since bursting onto the national fencing scene in 2015 as a high school phenom, South Korean sabre fencer Oh Sang-uk has been winning almost every title there is to win in his sport. "Almost" is doing a lot of work in that sentence, because Oh's otherwise impressive resume was missing an Olympic individual medal. The 27-year-old finally filled that hole Saturday in Paris and did so emphatically with the gold medal at Grand Palais. Oh defeated Fares Ferjani of Tunisia 15-11 in the

July 28, 2024

Impressive career progression culminates in 1st Olympic medal for swimmer Kim Woo-min

They say development is not always linear for athletes, but South Korean swimmer Kim Woo-min, who won the bronze medal in the men's 400-meter freestyle at the Paris Olympics on Saturday, may beg to differ. Consider his record progression over the past two years. He finished sixth at the 2022 world championships in 3:45.64 and then improved to fifth place at the 2023 worlds with a time of 3:43.92. Kim captured his first world title this February in 3:42.71. About four months later, Kim set a

July 28, 2024

Oh Sang-uk wins gold in men's individual sabre fencing

Oh Sang-uk captured the gold medal in the men's individual sabre fencing at the Paris Summer Games on Saturday, giving South Korea its first gold of this year's Olympics. Oh, world No. 4, defeated 14th-ranked Fares Ferjani of Tunisia by 15-11 in the gold medal bout at Grand Palais in Paris, a match he mostly dominated despite the closer-than-it-should-have-been final score. Oh, 27, became the first South Korean man to win an individual sabre gold. His former teammate, Kim Jung-hwan, had won two

July 28, 2024

S. Korea secures at least silver in mixed rifle team event for 1st medal in Paris

South Korea secured its first medal of the Paris Olympics in shooting Saturday, the first day of the medal race following the opening ceremony the previous evening. Park Ha-jun and Keum Ji-hyeon qualified for the gold medal match in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, about 270 kilometers south of Paris. Park and Keum will grab at least a silver medal, even if they lose to the Chinese team of Sheng Lihao and Huang Yuting. The battle for the

July 27, 2024