An San is an archer from South Korea who redefined dominance in the sport by winning all the three major event in archery in the Olympics as well as in the Archery World Cup.
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When one talks about Archery, the dominance of South Korea is unparalleled in the sport. From 1972 till 2021, South Korea has won 27 gold and secured 43 medals. In the recent Tokyo Olympics 2020, South Korea once again dominated the archery scene. They won four out of the five gold medal events, finishing on top of the medals tally. When Atanu Das, Pravin Jadhav and Deepika Kumari were gunning for a medal, they would unfortunately have to square off against the might of the South Korean archers.
Atanu Das lost to Takaharu Furukawa in the 1/8th round in the Tokyo Olympics 2020 while in the men’s team event, they lost to South Korea 6-0. With the elimination of Atanu Das and the team event, all eyes were on the women. Deepika Kumari had entered the quarterfinal of the Archery event and was one win away from a potential medal. But, in the quarterfinal event, she met An San. The South Korea teenage sensation was in fine form, winning 6-0. When Deepika Kumari, the world number one lost, all queries on social media and google turned to who was An San.
An San went on to dominate the Tokyo Olympics in Archery. The remarkable thing was that this was her debut Olympics and it was a tribute to the system in South Korea when it came to the quality of archers. In the women’s team event, South Korea battled out with Russia. An San partnered with Jang Min-Hee and Kang Chae-Young to win the gold medal in the most dominant way.
In the mixed team event, it was South Korea who dominated. They defeated the Netherlands 5-3, with An San partnering with Kim Je Deok to win her second gold medal. However, it was in the individual event where An San showed her brilliance. At the age of 20, she was facing immense pressure from Russia’s Elena Osipova.
In the first set, the scores were level at 28-28. In the second set, An San won an incredibly close game 30-29 to take a 3-1 lead. But, An San lost the next two sets 27-28 and 27-29 as she trailed 3-5. In a match of incredibly close margins, An San managed to win the final set 29-27 to level the match at 5-5. The gold medal clash now went into the shoot-out. An San was the first to step up. When it mattered the most, An San shot a 10. The Russian had to level the game in order to stay alive. Instead, she shot an eight and lost the gold medal in the most heart-breaking circumstances.
An San became the first athlete in the history of the Olympics to win three archery gold medals. She swept the entire competition. This continued the trend where she dominated the archery world at such a young age. At the age of 17, she secured the silver medal in the World Archery Youth Championship. But, in 2019 at the Archery World Cup in Berlin, An San secured the gold medal in her maiden appearance.
What makes the entire South Korean archery scene so dominant? For the last 49 years, South Korea have dominated the sport in a brilliant way. It is like China in Table Tennis. There are two prime factors in what makes An San such a brilliant force in Archery at such a young age.
A transparent selection process and the sheer focus on merit are the two basic factors in South Korea’s archery dominance. However, there is an additional factor. According to a report in the Korea Times, the Korean Archery Association decided to stage the Olympic trials from scratch after the coronavirus postponed the Tokyo Olympics. It also helped that the Korean Archery Association built a replica of the Archery venue that would be used in Tokyo. This helped archers to get acclimatized to the real-life simulation in an event.
It is because of this set-up that the likes of An San and so many Korean athletes perform so well in the Olympics. South Korea is set to dominate the entire archery scene in years to come, and An San is the perfect symbol of that dominance.
