Lee Woo-suk scored 10 points for all six shots in the final, and the gold medal for the Paris Olympics was 'Destiny'
Jul 30, 2024
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Lee Woo-seok (Kolon) won his dream gold medal after three Olympics. The South Korean men's archery team, consisting of Kim Woo-jin (Cheongju City Hall), Lee Woo-seok and Kim Je-deok (Yecheon County Office), won the men's team final at the 2024 Paris Olympics against France by 5-1 (57-57, 59-58, 59-56) on the 30th (Korea time). After Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2020, Korea succeeded in 'Gold Hunt' for the third consecutive time.
Lee Woo-seok's performance shone. Lee Woo-suk scored 10 points in all six shots in the final. Lee Woo-seok "I was going in to shoot the first shot of the final, but I wasn't nervous. I thought, 'Oh, it's today.' I thought I'd just have to enjoy it. "I was able to confidently say to Kim Woo-jin and Kim Je-deok, 'It's okay, we can win if it's ours, I'll shoot 10 points.'"
It is a very special gold medal for Lee Woo-suk. He was selected as the leading member of archery in the Republic of Korea from a young age. He won five gold medals at the 2013 National Sports Festival when he was a student at Incheon Seonin High School. At the 2014 Youth Olympics held in Nanjing, China, he set a new world record under the age of 17.
Fate ran strangely. After rising to the adult level, Lee Woo-suk failed to overcome the last shot in front of the big stage. In the 2016 Rio Olympics national team selection, he finished fourth. I missed the Olympic ticket to the top three in front of my eyes. Even at the Tokyo Olympics, he was not on the final list. He also failed to reach the top at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games, when he joined the first-team national team. He won silver medals in both individual and team events at the time when he joined the Korean Armed Forces as a private. If he won the gold medal at that time, he could have received a special military service exemption. But even that wasn't up to Lee Woo-suk.
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Lee Woo-seok was not very nervous even when he played in the quarterfinals. But the crowd started shouting and made one mistake on the second end. That's when I was really nervous. So I shouted louder and shouted fighting more along with Kim Je-deok, but the tension gradually disappeared. I can enjoy this stage now."
Surprisingly, the tension was greater in the Asian Games. Lee Woo-suk recalled the nightmare of Jakarta. I remembered a lot then. It was an Olympics that covered up bad memories, so I was able to do it more easily." When I shot my last shot, my mother thought of me the most. He recalled "Mother's face a lot. My mother cried a lot when she saw that she couldn't go to the Olympics and cried together. I shot it to finish with this shot, but I think it went well.'
The members who worked together became second families. He "In a way, I think he's a team member and a real family. That's how hard we prepared, and we practiced a lot together to help the players become a team. That's why I think we've become a family-like relationship."
Coincidentally, we now have to compete with members like family members in a solo exhibition. In particular, he can meet Kim Woo-jin in the semifinals. Lee Woo-suk hopes to win two awards. Coincidentally, he was in the same group as Kim Woo-jin, who is preparing for the three gold medals. I don't give you any slack. I want to go up with Kim Woojin and meet him in the semifinals"I laughed. Finally, he said "I understand that Lim Dong-hyun, coach of the national team, has been the longest-serving national team player. I told him I was going to break his 18-year representative record, and he told me to break it. Now that I have achieved my goal of winning the Olympic gold medal, my next goal is to become the longest-serving national athlete."
vanbasten@sportschosun.com
