Three Golds in First Olympic Appearance... Im Si-hyun, the Rise of the Archery Queen [Paris Olympics]

Korean Women's Archery Wins 4 Consecutive Individual and Team Titles
If Men's Individual Wins Gold, First Ever Sweep of 5 Archery Golds

Following Hangzhou, Lim Si-hyun (21, Korea National Sport University) also claimed a triple crown in Paris. Winning three gold medals in her first-ever Olympic appearance, she has firmly established herself as the ace of Korean archery.

On the 3rd (local time), Lim Si-hyun, who won the gold medal in the women's individual archery final at the 2024 Paris Olympics held at Les Invalides in Paris, France, is posing at the award ceremony after achieving a triple crown.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 3rd (Korean time), Lim Si-hyun defeated her youngest teammate Nam Su-hyun (19, Suncheon City Hall) 7-3 (29-29, 29-26, 30-27, 29-30, 28-26) in the women's individual archery final at the 2024 Paris Olympics held at Les Invalides in Paris, France.

Lim Si-hyun is the second archer to win three Olympic gold medals in archery since mixed team events were first introduced at the 2020 Tokyo Games, following An San. Previously, Lim won gold in the women's team event alongside Nam Su-hyun and Jeon Hun-young, and also secured gold in the mixed team event with Kim Woo-jin.

In the individual event, she claimed the gold medal on her own merit. After defeating fellow teammate Jeon Hun-young (30, Incheon Metropolitan City Hall) in the semifinals, Lim faced her junior teammate Nam Su-hyun again in the final.

Starting the match by drawing the first set, Lim calmly took control in the remaining sets, ultimately winning with a set score of 7-3 to become the top female archer of the tournament.

With this, Korean archery has once again proven its status as the world's strongest. Since the 2012 London Olympics, Korea has won both the women's individual and team events for four consecutive Games.

On the 3rd (local time), Lim Si-hyun and Nam Su-hyun, who won the gold and silver medals respectively, are taking a commemorative photo at the medal ceremony of the women's individual archery event at the 2024 Paris Olympics held at Les Invalides in Paris, France. On the right is Lisa Bavelin of France, who won the bronze medal. [Image source=Yonhap News]

This is also the fifth time that Korean archery has swept both gold and silver medals in the Olympic individual events, following the 1988 Seoul, 1992 Barcelona, 2000 Sydney, and 2004 Athens Games.

However, in the bronze medal match, Jeon Hun-young narrowly lost to France's Lisa Barbelin 4-6 (27-28, 29-27, 26-28, 29-26, 27-28), missing out on a complete gold, silver, and bronze sweep.

Now, only the men's individual event remains. If a gold medal is won in the men's individual event on the 4th, Korea will achieve a historic first by winning five gold medals in a single Olympic archery competition.

Lim Si-hyun, the first member of the team to win a triple crown at this Games, attributes her success to innate talent combined with hard work. After winning three gold medals at last year's Hangzhou Asian Games, she reportedly doubled her training volume to prepare for the Olympics.

Her consistent effort paid off, and Lim Si-hyun swept three gold medals at this tournament, solidifying her position as the ace of the Korean women's archery team. She now aims to break the record set by Kim Soo-nyung, who won a total of four Olympic gold medals. If she maintains her current form and adds two more gold medals at the 2028 Los Angeles (LA) Olympics, Lim Si-hyun will write a new chapter in the history of Korean archery.