'A milestone with only 13 countries' From Yang Jung-mo to Ban Hyo-jin, 100 gold medals in the Summer Olympics in South Korea are completed
Jul 29, 2024
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In the women's final round of shooting air rifle at the 2024 Paris Olympics held at Chatoru Shooting Center in France on the 29th (Korea time), Ban Hyo-jin (Daegu High School) won the gold medal. It was South Korea's fourth gold medal at the Summer Olympics.
It was a 48-year milestone. South Korea won its first gold medal at the 1976 Montreal Games. Yang Jung-mo was named the first Olympic gold medalist in the 62kg freestyle wrestling. With the exception of the 1980 Moscow Games, he has won gold medals at every Summer Olympics.
Korea's sports, which won six gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, swept 12 gold medals at the 1988 Seoul Games and 1992 Barcelona Games. He brought seven at the 1996 Atlanta Games and eight at the 2000 Sydney Games.
South Korea, which harvested nine gold medals at the 2004 Athens Games, peaked in Beijing 2008 and London 2012. It added 13 gold medals, the most ever.
At the 2016 Rio Games, the number of gold medals was reduced to nine, and in the aftermath of COVID-19, it was delayed by one year, so it won six gold medals at the 2021 Tokyo Games.
Korean sports, which won a total of 96 gold medals by the Tokyo Games, added four in Paris to finally reach the 100 mark. The size of the team was smaller than in previous years, and it initially predicted about five gold medals, but it filled four in three days with a surprising rise. Starting with Oh Sang-wook winning his first gold medal in the individual fencing men's sabre event, Oh Ye-jin of the women's 10-meter air pistol shooting and Ban Hyo-jin made a new history following the women's archery team of the 'world's strongest' who won 10 consecutive team events.
So far, only 12 countries (except the Soviet Union and East Germany) have won more than 100 gold medals at the Summer Olympics, including the United States, Russia, Britain, China, France, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Australia, Sweden, and Finland. South Korea was named the 13th.
Now, the South Korean team is running for the 300th medal in the Summer Olympics. Up to Ban Hyo-jin's gold medal, South Korea has won a total of 294 medals in all-time Olympic Games with 100 gold, 93 silver, and 101 bronze. Jeon Sang-kyun, who ranked fourth in the men's weightlifting class (105kg or more) at the 2012 London Games, added another bronze medal to the bronze medal, which was belatedly taken over by Russia's existing bronze medalist Ruslan Albegov (Russia). Jeon Sang-gyun will receive a medal during the Paris Olympics.
If you add five medals, you can step on 300 high ground. At the current trend, this is also not expected to take long.
vanbasten@sportschosun.com
