There was no upset. The world’s strongest archery team has won its third gold medal in Paris, France, with a convincing display of power.
After a brief hiccup, they came back from the dead to secure victory. In the end, the victory was deserved.
South Korean archery has won its third gold medal of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, moving one step closer to winning all five events at the Games. It was a dominant victory, just like the women’s and men’s team events that preceded it.
The South Korean mixed archery team of Kim Woo-jin (Cheongju City Hall) and Im Si Hyun (Korea Gymnastics University) won the gold medal. The pair defeated Germany’s Florian Unruh and Michel Kroppen 6-0 (38-35 36-35 36-35) in the final of the mixed archery team event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Les Invalides Special Archery Center in Paris, France, on Sunday (Feb. 2).
Kim Woo-jin and Lim Shi-hyun punched their ticket to the quarterfinals after a hard-fought shootout against Chinese Taipei in the Round of 16. In the quarterfinals and semifinals, they got off to a shaky start, dropping the first end against Italy and India, respectively, but bounced back in the second end to secure two comeback wins and reach the final. The final was a rather easy win. They took the lead from the first end and held on for the win.
South Korea got off to a shaky start in the first end of the final, with Lim Tem-hyun shooting an 8, but then put all three shots on 10 to win 38-35. In the mixed team archery event, men and women shoot two shots each in each end, with the total score determining the winner of the end.
In the second end, South Korea didn’t make it difficult. Germany struggled to shoot 10s in the final. The Taijiquan archers, on the other hand, maintained their 10-point frequency after shooting zero in the first end. In the second end, Unruh and Kroppen hit three 9s and one 8 to score 35 points, while Kim Woo-jin and Lim Shi-hyun scored 36 points to win by one point.
The third end was also in Korea’s favor. They secured the sweep. Unruh shot well, but Kroppen had a slow start with seven points. The score was 36-35 in favor of South Korea. It was their second consecutive Olympic title in the mixed team event.
Earlier in the day, Kim Woo-jin and Lim Si-hyun defeated India’s Dilai Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat 6-2 (36-38 38-35 38-37 39-38) in the semifinals to reach the final.
It was a thrilling come-from-behind victory. The world champions in the mechanical bow compound event, which is not an Olympic discipline but is held at the Asian Games, have been on a roll in recent years in the Olympic event, recurve. With that momentum, India won the first end 38-36, but were no match for South Korea in the second.
The pair of Kim Woo-jin and Lim Shi-hyun started a frightening rebound from the second end. In the second end, after India missed all four shots for 10 points and scored 35 points, Kim Woo-jin and Lim Si-hyun scored 19 points with two shots each and tied the game at 38 points. In the third and fourth ends, India scored 37 and 38 points, respectively, but Kim Woo-jin and Lim Si-hyun scored one more point with 38 and 39 points to win the match.
In the quarterfinals, Kim Woo-jin and Lim Shi-hyun faced Italy’s Mauro Nespoli and Chiara Levaliatti and pulled off a similar 6-2 (34-38 39-37 38-36 40-38) upset.
Kim Woo-jin and Im Seom-hyun made a promising start in the first end against Italy, shooting one 9 and one 8, respectively, to concede 34 points to the Italians, but they came back to life in the second through fourth ends to win consecutive games. In particular, Kim Woo-jin scored all six of his shots in the second through fourth ends for 10 points. Im Si Hyun also came back to life, and in the fourth end, both Kim Woo Jin and Im Si Hyun scored 10 points to show off their ‘Shingung’ skills with a score of 40 points.
Before facing Italy, Kim Woo-jin and Lim Shi-hyun had a tough Round of 16 matchup against Taiwan. The first 메이저사이트 game proved to be the toughest on their way to the title. They faced Chinese Taipei’s Tai Yu-chuan and Lei-Chen-ying and won 5-4 (37-35 39-37 37-38 38-40 20-19) in a close match that went to a shootout.
Kim Woo-jin and Lim Si Hyun looked to be on track to win the first two ends, but dropped the third and fourth ends to force a shootout. Here, both Kim Woo-jin and Lim Si-hyun scored 10 points to defeat Taiwan.
South Korean archery is aiming for its first ever five-event sweep at the Paris Olympics.
The sport has been competing in both men’s and women’s individual events at the Olympics since the 1988 Seoul Games. Mixed team events were introduced at the last Games, Tokyo 2020, following the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) push for gender equality.
South Korea won gold in four events at the Tokyo Games, including the men’s and women’s team events, mixed team events, and women’s individual events, with women’s national team ace Ahn San becoming the first archery triple winner in Olympic history, but missed out on gold in the men’s individual event.
This time around, three male and three female archers are in peak form and are expected to win the mixed team event as well as the men’s and women’s individual events. Korea has already won gold medals in the men’s and women’s team events, defeating France and China, respectively. They also won gold in the mixed team event. Two individual events remain.
Kim Woo-jin and Lim Im-hyun became the second South Korean athletes to win double gold at the Paris Games, joining men’s fencing double winner Oh Sang-wook.
Kim Woo-jin won the men’s team event at Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020, and now Paris, adding to his three consecutive gold medals in the mixed team event. She is tied for the most Olympic gold medals by a South Korean archer with Kim Soo-Ning, who won four gold medals in her career, including a double at Seoul 1988 and gold in the women’s team event at Barcelona 1992 and Sydney 2000.
Kim also became the first archer in world archery history to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals.
If Kim wins gold in the men’s individual event, he will not only set a new record for the most gold medals won by South Korean archers at an Olympic Games, but also become the first South Korean man to win three gold medals at a Summer Games.
Im Yeon-hyun is the new queen of world archery, having won two gold medals at the Games after winning three at last year’s Asian Games in Hangzhou. If she also wins the women’s individual event, she will become the first South Korean to win three Olympic titles since Ansan three years ago.