South Korea has won the most Olympic medals in archery and taekwondo, and the Asian nation will once again rely on them for medals.
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The Republic of Korea – commonly known as South Korea – has been one of the Asian heavyweights in the Olympics to date. Having first participated at the Games in 1948, the country has sent athletes to compete in every Summer Olympic Games since then, except for Moscow 1980. They have made a good account of themselves since their initial participation. South Korea are 15th in the overall ranking with only two other Asian heavyweights in Japan and China ahead of them in the list. They have 267 medals in total, which is less when comparing it with Romania, the Netherlands and Poland. However, the Republic of Korea edge past them mainly due to their gold medal count. South Korea has won an impressive 90 gold medals at the Games till now and most of their medals have come from archery, wrestling, judo, and taekwondo.
The South Koreans have largely dominated archery and taekwondo. No country has won more medals in either of these disciplines in the Olympics. In archery, the Asian side has won 39 medals. To put it into better perspective, South Korean archers have won 23 out of 34 gold medals in events since 1984. They have won a further 19 in Taekwondo, which also includes 12 gold medals. China is at second in this discipline with seven gold medals. The South Koreans will yet again be going into the tournament as favourites for medals in both these disciplines. It is in Judo where they have won the most number of medals (43) but only 11 of them are gold. The same number of gold medals they have won in wrestling even though their total stands at 36.
At the 1948 Games in London, the Republic of Korea made its Summer Olympic debut. The National Olympic Committee (NOC) entered athletes in seven sports, with two athletes, Han Su-An and Kim Sung-Jip, winning bronze medals in boxing and weightlifting, respectively. It took until the 1976 Olympics in Montreal for a Republic of Korea athlete to bag the gold. Yang Jung-Mo won the men’s 62kg division in freestyle wrestling.
Yang’s gold started a fine tradition in wrestling for the NOC. The Republic of Korea has produced 11 gold medallists in wrestling, seven in Greco-Roman, and four in freestyle. Sim Kwon-Ho is the NOC’s only double-gold medallist in wrestling, having won gold in the Greco-Roman 48kg category in 1996 before moving up a division to take the 54kg title in 2000.
Eight @Olympics. Eight gold medals. ?#Archery’s team event was added to the Games in 1988 and the Korean women haven’t been beaten since. Will that unbelievable record be extended at @Tokyo2020?#ArcheryatTokyo pic.twitter.com/GgeFVHStEh
— World Archery (@worldarchery) July 15, 2021
South Korea, however, has had the most success in archery, with 23 Olympic titles in the NOC’s history. Kim Soo-Nyung is their most outstanding archer, having won four gold medals, one silver, and one bronze. Kim, regarded as one of the best female archers of the modern era, won three team gold medals (1988, 1992, and 2000), as well as one individual gold medal in 1988.
Since the event’s inception in 1988, the Republic of Korea has won every women’s team gold medal, while the men have won five of the eight gold medals available. At the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, archer Seo Hyang-Soon became the first Korean archer to win gold and the first female gold medallist from the NOC. Archery will be a discipline where athletes around the world will struggle to compete against South Korea.
Korea is the birthplace of taekwondo and it’s not a surprise to see the Republic of Korea dominating that discipline in the Games. Hwang Kyung-Sun is one of only six athletes to have won two Olympic titles in the sport. Besides, she is the Olympics’ equal-most successful taekwondoka with two gold and one bronze medal. Between 2004 and 2012, she won her Olympic medals.
Judo has also immensely contributed to the Republic of Korea’s success. The NOC has 11 Olympic titles in the sport, with four athletes – Kim Jae-Bum, Kim Jae-Yup, Cho Min-Sun, and Choi Min-Ho – winning one gold and one other type of medal. They have also done well in other sports like shooting, badminton, fencing, and boxing, making them a country to watch out for in every Olympics.
South Korea’s best Olympic performance came in the 1988 Seoul Games. As the host country, the South Koreans enjoyed arguably their best outing till now in the Games. They have won 33 medals, including 12 gold medals to finish fourth in the overall ranking. The South Koreans also bagged 10 silver and 11 bronze medals. They had to wait till the 2012 London Games to finish in the top five places again. With 13 gold and 30 overall medals, the Asian team finished fifth.
Only one other time, they have bagged 13 gold medals at a single Olympic Games. It was in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Five years ago, the Republic of Korea finished in eighth place on the overall medal table, claiming nine gold medals at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. Going into Tokyo Games, the South Koreans will be eager to improve on that performance and possibly secure another top-five finish.
