Guns (shooting), knives (fencing) and bows (bowl) are a must-have item for the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. In less than half of the Olympic Games, nine gold medals were poured out in three sports, exceeding the Korean team’s goal of five gold medals and 15th overall ranking before the opening of the event.
The rebound in shooting, which had lost its momentum, was a major factor. Shooting only won one silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. Jin Jong-oh, who led the golden age of shooting in Korea, failed to fill the retirement gap of four gold medals and two silver medals.
As Hanwha, which had supported shooting for a long time, withdrew from the race last year, few predicted that the Paris Olympics would be sluggish, but won three gold medals and two silver medals, tying with the 2012 London Olympics, which is the highest record ever. Some say that a renaissance in shooting has come as there is still a chance to add more medals in the remaining games.
Shooting experts find the key to improvement of shooting structure in three years. The Korea Shooting Federation appointed Lee Eun-cheol, the gold medalist at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, as the head of the performance improvement committee. Currently, Lee has elevated his competitiveness by selecting players who are strong in the final round as national team members. Since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, shooting has changed to a method of lowering the score points in the final round, but since we picked the national team members in the order of high score, we have decided that we have revealed our limitations in the Tokyo Olympics.
The difference was evident by the number of medals won. Six events made it to the finals in both the Tokyo and Paris Olympics. The result is that the Tokyo Olympics won one silver medal, and the Paris Olympics won three gold medals and two silver medals. “It is a sudden death in the finals to decide the gold medal. It is our athletes’ talent,” said Kim Tae-ho, vice chairman of the Korea Shooting Federation, who met at the women’s 25-meter pistol finals on the 2nd, and was confident in Yang Ji-in’s good performance, but a day later, the third gold medal in shooting came out in the finals on the 3rd.
Efforts were made to reduce the trials and errors of the Tokyo Olympics. At that time, our athletes had insufficient practical experience because they had to participate in the Olympics without experience in international competitions due to COVID-19. The Korean Shooting Federation concluded in early April that this part also affected the weakening of their competitiveness. This allowed athletes to participate in the Olympics with the experience of participating in at least three international competitions. It is also noteworthy that adaptation training began two weeks before the opening of the Olympics.
“In fact, it will be the same in all sports, but it is important to help players who are good in Korea do well in international competitions,” an official from the Korea Shooting Federation said. “I am proud that I have achieved good results in this competition because I selected players who can do well and helped them do well.”
BY: 토토사이트