Korean Rising Stars Who Shined in Paris Will Shine Even Brighter in LA 2028 [Paris Olympics]

Harvest of 13 Gold Medals 'All-Time Record'
Rebellion of MZ Generation, Surpassing the Goal

The Taeguk Warriors concluded their journey at the 2024 Paris Olympics by winning a record 13 gold medals, matching the number set at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics.

The medal march continued until the final day of the 2024 Paris Olympics on the 11th. ‘Post Jang Mi-ran’ Park Hye-jung (21) won a silver medal in the women's over 81kg weightlifting event by lifting 131kg in the snatch, 168kg in the clean and jerk, for a total of 299kg. Her peer Seong Seung-min (21) also won a bronze medal in the women's modern pentathlon final, marking the first time a Korean female athlete earned a medal in this event. Our athletes won 13 gold, 9 silver, and 10 bronze medals at this Olympics. The total of 32 medals was the second highest after the 33 medals won at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Hyejeong Park [Photo by Yonhap News]

Young athletes in their teens to early twenties showed boldness that did not yield to adversity. Shooting athlete Ban Hyo-jin, who became the 100th gold medalist in Korea’s Summer Olympics history, is only 16 years old this year. The note he stuck on his laptop saying, ‘Anyway, I am the best in this world,’ became a symbol of the ambition of the young athletes who achieved great things at the Paris Olympics. The women's 10m air pistol gold medalist Oh Ye-jin (19) is also a teenager.

Yang Ji-in (21), the women's 25m pistol gold medalist, has just passed her twenties. Lim Si-hyun (21) from the archery team, who won three gold medals at both last year’s Hangzhou Asian Games and the Paris Olympics, and An Se-young (22), who secured her position as the queen of badminton, are also in their early twenties. Taekwondo national representatives Park Tae-jun (20) and Kim Yu-jin (24) restored the pride of the taekwondo homeland, which had been tarnished by no gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The number of athletes participating in this event was 144, the smallest since the 1976 Munich Olympics. The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee set a gold medal target of 5, the lowest since the Munich Olympics (1 gold). However, young rising stars won more than twice the target number of gold medals. The 2024 Paris Olympics was a stage that confirmed the potential of Korean youth. At the 2028 LA Olympics, to be held four years later, the rising stars from Paris are likely to shine even brighter.