'Awkward' Four People Staring at One TV... Kim Woojin and Allison in the Waiting Room Before the 'Masterpiece Match' [Paris Olympics]

Kim Woo-jin (32, Cheongju City Hall) won the gold medal in the men's individual archery event at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and a photo showing him together with his opponent in the waiting room just before the final has become a hot topic.

On the 4th, in the men's individual archery final held in Paris, France, Kim Woo-jin defeated Brady Ellison (USA) in a shoot-off with a score of 6-5 (27-29 28-24 27-29 29-27 30-30 <10+-10>) to claim the gold medal. With this victory, Kim Woo-jin swept the individual, mixed team, and team events in Paris, becoming the first male athlete to achieve a triple crown.

Ellison, who was once called the "Korean Killer" due to his strong performance against Korean players, had to settle for multiple medals (bronze in mixed team, silver in individual) in this tournament.

[Image source=World Archery Federation Instagram]

Meanwhile, the photo of the players in the waiting room just before the final was released, drawing attention. The released photo shows Kim Woo-jin and Ellison sitting facing each other before their final match.

Next to Kim Woo-jin was coach Lim Dong-hyun, replacing head coach Park Sung-soo who had left to attend the bronze medal match of Lee Woo-seok (27, Kolon Under). Judging by the internal monitor showing Florian Unruh (31, Germany), Lee Woo-seok’s opponent, it appears to be the situation just before the final.

Ellison was watching the bronze medal match while looking at the monitor. However, Kim Woo-jin, sitting opposite him, clasped his hands together and stared ahead instead of watching the match.

On the 4th (local time), at the 2024 Paris Olympic archery men's individual final held at Les Invalides in Paris, France, South Korea's Kim Woo-jin, who won the gold medal, and South Korea's Lee Woo-seok, who won the bronze medal, are posing at the awards ceremony. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Netizens who saw the photo reacted with comments such as, "Shouldn't there be a partition at least?", "It seems Kim Woo-jin is controlling his mind," "I thought each team would have a separate waiting room, but they wait in the same space," "The waiting room facilities look poor," and "Just looking at it makes me feel suffocated."

Meanwhile, Korea’s sweep of all archery gold medals at the Olympics is the first time in eight years and the second in history since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, where four gold medals were at stake. With the introduction of the mixed team event at the 2021 Tokyo Games, the number of archery gold medals increased to five, but Korea missed out on the men’s individual gold medal at that time.