No. 1 Yang Jeong-mo, No. 50 Ha Tae-kwon and Kim Dong-moon… Now I’m waiting for the first 100 gold coins
August 1, 1976, a hot summer day. Good news came from as far away as Montreal, Canada. “Rejoice, citizens. Korean wrestler Yang Jeong-mo has finally won a gold medal.” The voice of the radio announcer who interrupted the regular broadcast and broadcast the match live shook with excitement and emotion. Newspapers that were not published because it was Sunday also distributed supplements to convey this emotional moment. The Summer Olympics, the world’s largest international competition, gave new hope and courage to people who had been through difficult times. “The news of Yang Jeong-mo’s gold medal, awarded on the morning of the first holiday of the first day of Liberation Month, caused a wave of emotion and enthusiasm across the country, similar to that of liberation. An article in the Hankook Ilbo at the time, which said, “Citizens celebrated the first gold medal since the country’s founding in unison at home, on the streets, at work and at seaside resorts, gives some idea of the emotion of the day.” Korea, which first competed at the London Olympics under the Taegeukgi in 1948, broke a 28-year-old streak of gold when Yang Jeong-mo won the men’s 62kg freestyle wrestling class at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Son Ki-jeong became the first Korean to win a gold medal in the men’s marathon, but he had the Japanese flag on his chest, and Yang Jeong-mo relieved him of his resentment at not being able to sing the national anthem in the skies of a foreign country. Since winning its first gold medal, Korea has entered the ranks of sports powers at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. And now, we are expecting the 100th gold medal in total at the Summer Games of the 2024 Paris Olympics, which opened on the 26th (local time). Korea has won a total of 96 gold medals in summer competitions until the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021. It won 13 gold medals in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, and 12 in Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992. The total number of medals is 288, including 96 gold medals, 91 silver medals and 101 bronze medals. Now, with four more gold medals at the Paris Olympics, Korea will win its 100th gold medal overall. The goal of this competition is to win at least 5 gold medals and be in the top 15 overall, so it is very likely that the 100th national anthem will be sung in the Paris sky. Previously, Korea’s 10th gold medal was won by Lee Gyeong-geun in judo at the 1988 Seoul Games, and the 50th gold medal was won by Ha Tae-kwon and Kim Dong-moon in men’s doubles badminton at the 2004 Athens Games. The 100 gold medals at the Summer Games is a record that only 12 countries (excluding the Soviet Union and East Germany) have achieved so far. The United States has the most with 1,061, and Russia has 542, including the Soviet era. Germany has also won 410 gold medals, including those of West Germany and East Germany. In Asia, China has the most with 263 (4th overall), followed by Japan with 169 (9th overall). The most popular sport is archery. Archery, which prides itself on being the best in the world, has won 27 gold medals. Taekwondo, the country of origin, followed with 12, followed by judo and wrestling with 11 each. Additionally, gold medals were won in shooting (7), badminton (6), fencing (5), boxing, weightlifting, table tennis (3), gymnastics, handball (2), swimming, track and field, baseball and golf (1). The athletes with the most gold medals are Jin Jong-oh in shooting and Su-nyeong Kim in archery (4). Jin Jong-oh has won medals four times in a row, from the Athens Games in 2004 to the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016. Kim Soo-nyeong became the first Korean player to win two gold medals at the Seoul Games in 1988, and added one at the Barcelona Games in 1992 and the Sydney Games in 2000. In addition to that, most of the multiple medalists are also archers. Im Si-hyeon, who won his first triple gold at the Tokyo 2021 Games, as well as Park Seong-hyun, Ki Bo-bae and Yoon Mi-jin each collected three. The 100th gold medal is likely to come from archery, which is aiming to win at least three gold medals at the Paris Olympics. On the first day of competition, the archery team fiercely withdrew its arrows from the ranking round that split the match. Women’s archery ace Im Si-hyun shot 694 points in the individual competition, breaking both the world and Olympic records and taking first place. Second place also went to Nam Soo-hyun with 688 points. The total score of the three players, including 13th-ranked Jeon Hoon-young (644 points), was 2,046 points, which is also an Olympic record and the first place in the overall team ranking. In the men’s national team, veteran Kim Woo-jin scored 686 points and moved into first place overall, followed by two-time Tokyo Olympic winner Kim Je-deok with 682 points. Lee Woo-seok has the lowest ranking among Korean players with 681 points, but he is still ranked 5th overall. Their combined score was 2,049 points, ranking first in the team competition. Im Si-hyun and Kim Woo-jin, who won first place in both the men’s and women’s events, will compete in the mixed event, newly created from the Tokyo Games, and can aim for up to three gold medals. In archery, the women’s team finals will be held on the 29th (Korean time), the men’s team finals on the 30th, the mixed finals on the 2nd, the women’s individual finals on the 3rd, and the men’s individual finals on the 4th. Even if you don’t win a gold medal in any other event, if you win 4 out of 5 events in archery, you will receive your 100th gold medal. If archery wins a gold medal in the first team competitions, and if there are surprise gold medals in swimming and shooting, we can also expect the 100th gold medal in other sports. The men’s relay team, which includes the “golden generation” such as Hwang Sun-woo, Kim Woo-min and Lee Ho-jun, the women’s épée team fencing event, the men’s sabre team fencing event called “Appengers,” and the badminton mixed doubles of Seo Seung-jae and Chae Yu-jeong are candidates for the 100th honor.
