Veteran Taegeuk warriors dream of the ultimate beauty on the final Asian Games stage.
Koo Bon-gil (34), the star of the Korean men’s fencing saber, will challenge to become the gold medalist with the most gold medals ever at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games. If she sweeps the individual and team events, she will increase her total number of gold medals in the Asian Games to seven, surpassing swimming Park Tae-hwan and fencing Nam Hyun-hee (6) and rising to first place. In addition, he is the first Korean player to win four consecutive individual competitions.
Koo Bon-gil, who started his ‘golden thrust’ at the 2010 Guangzhou Games, achieved 3 consecutive wins in individual competitions and 2 consecutive wins in team competitions, including the 2014 Incheon Games and the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games. He said, “This could be the last Asian Games,” and “I will set a lot of records, so I will focus and work harder than other competitions.”
Oh Jin-hyuk is practicing before the Hyundai Motor Company Chung Mong-gu Cup Korea Archery Competition 2023 held at Mokdong Main Stadium in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul on August 31. Newsis
Oh Jin-hyuk (42), a living legend in men’s archery, is determined to make up for the disappointment of the ‘No Gold’ event at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games, saying, “The Hangzhou Games are really the last.” He won two consecutive gold medals in the team event at the 2010 Guangzhou Games and the individual event at the 2014 Incheon Games, but only won a silver medal in the team event at the Jakarta Games. He is well past his age and his shoulder condition is not good, but he is pulling the bowstring for a beautiful finish.스포츠토토
Kim Hyun-woo and Ryu Han-soo (age 35), who have represented Korean wrestling for over 10 years, will also use this tournament as a stage for their retirement and burn off their final flame. Kim Hyun-woo, who won the gold medal with his ‘bloody fighting spirit’ at the 2012 London Olympics, is gritting his teeth even harder to regain the honor of wrestling, which is experiencing a downturn. He said, “I feel responsible for the recent poor performance of the wrestling team in international competitions,” and pledged, “I will work hard to restore the pride of Korean wrestling.” Kim Hyun-woo’s best friend Ryu Han-soo also has a strong desire to announce the revival of the ‘dignified sport’ by winning his third consecutive Asian Games title.
Kim Seo-young (29), the star of women’s swimming, is also nearing the end. Kim Seo-young, whose main event is the 200m women’s individual medley, where she swims 50m each in the order of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle, is the savior of Korean swimming who prevented two consecutive no-gold humiliations. Korean swimming failed to win a single gold medal at the 2014 Incheon Games after the retirement of ‘Marine Boy’ Park Tae-hwan, and at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games, Kim Seo-young was the only swimmer to pull off a gold medal in the 200m individual medley. Following former Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Choi Yun-hee, the gold medalist at the 1982 New Delhi Games and the 1986 Seoul Games, Kim Seo-young, who is attempting to become the first female athlete to win the competition for the second time in 37 years, said, “This may be my last Asian Games, so I will play without regrets.” “I will prepare,” he said.
Even in ball sports, there are many players who have announced a breakup. La Geon-ah (34), a naturalized men’s basketball player, defends his goal in his second consecutive Asian Games appearance. La Geon-ah, who is a pure foreigner and not of mixed race, is the first player to wear the national basketball team’s Taegeuk symbol, and although her skills are not the same as before, she is a key resource behind the goal that cannot be replaced. A men’s volleyball player (37 years old) was also selected as a firefighter to save the national team in crisis in his late 30s.