Korea's Top Gold Medal Hope: Archery [Paris Olympics]

Will the Taekwondo Origin Country Regain Its Pride?

Archery was ranked as the number one sport with the highest expectations for South Korea to win a gold medal at the Paris Olympics.

Female archer Lim Si-hyun of the national team is competing in the ranking round of the women's individual event at the 2024 Paris Olympics on the 25th (local time) at the Les Invalides venue in Paris, France.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 26th, data consulting firm PMI surveyed 5,000 general citizens aged 15 and older, asking “Which sport do you most expect South Korea to win a gold medal in at this Paris Olympics?” 63% (3,150 people) answered archery. The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee is expecting at least three gold medals in archery.

South Korea’s archery team is considered the world’s strongest. The Olympic organizing committee officially recognizes on its website that South Korea has won 27 gold medals in archery out of a total of 70 gold medals since the 1900 Games, the largest number ever. No country has won more gold medals than South Korea in archery.

According to the survey results, the second most expected sport for a gold medal was taekwondo (42%), followed by badminton (30%), fencing (29%), swimming (28%), and shooting (22%). The South Korean taekwondo team won no gold medals but earned one silver and two bronze medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. It was the first Olympics where the taekwondo homeland failed to win a gold medal.

Separately from the sports categories, when asked which athlete was most expected to win a gold medal, badminton player An Se-young (12%) received the most votes. An is ranked number one in the world in women’s badminton and is a strong favorite to win Olympic gold. If she wins this time, she will achieve a personal Grand Slam in singles.

Second and third place went to South Korea’s swimming star Hwang Sun-woo (8%) and the youngest national table tennis representative Shin Yu-bin (4%), respectively. They were followed by track and field athlete Woo Sang-hyeok (3%) and archer Kim Je-deok (2%).

PMI’s margin of error for this survey is ±1.39 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.