The Korean badminton team, led by ‘Empress’ Ahn Se-young (Samsung Life Insurance), pledged to achieve its best ever performance at the Paris Olympics.
At the Paris Olympics media day event held at the Jincheon Athletes’ Village in North Chungcheong Province on the 18th, Ahn Se-young said, “As this is an event that we worked hard to prepare, we will end it in a romantic way in Paris.” Ahn Se-young won two gold medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games in October last year and showed performance worthy of the world’s No. 1 ranking, but later struggled due to the aftereffects of her knee injury.
Se-young Ahn said, “I always thought about the Paris Olympics and pulled myself up,” and added, “I ran even in worse situations than now.” “I have faith and confidence that I will be able to compete in even better condition at the Paris Olympics,” he emphasized. He also said, “I think my condition has improved by nearly 80%. Olympic gold is the final puzzle of the Grand Slam. “I will give my all to the Paris Olympics,” he said.
National team coach Kim Hak-gyun said, “There has never been a competition in which Korean badminton has won more than two gold medals in the previous Olympics,” and added, “Ahead of the Paris Olympics, Ahn Se-young is ranked first in the world in women’s singles. She also ranks in the top 10 in the rest of her events. It would not be surprising if there was a gold medal in any event, including men’s doubles (Seo Seung-jae and Kang Min-hyuk, 4th place), women’s doubles (Lee So-hee and Baek Hana, 2nd place), and mixed doubles (Seo Seung-jae and Chae Yu-jeong, 3rd place). “I cautiously expect the best performance ever (three or more gold medals),” he said.
Korean badminton won two gold medals each in the 1992 Barcelona Games and the 1996 Atlanta Games, but failed to win a gold medal in the last three tournaments (London 2012, Rio 2016, and Tokyo 2020). READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
The Taekwondo national team, which held a media day event at the Jincheon Athletes’ Village on this day, also announced that it would try to wash away its regrets over the ‘no gold’ event at the Tokyo Olympics. Taekwondo national team coach Lee Chang-geon said, “Because we experienced failure (1 silver, 2 bronze) at the Tokyo Olympics, we will bring at least one gold medal in Paris. We expect good results as we have prepared diligently through customized training for each athlete.” . The Tokyo Olympics were the first event in which Korea did not win a gold medal since the 2000 Sydney Olympics, when taekwondo was first included in the Olympic Games.
Taejun Park (men’s 58kg class), born in 2004, is the youngest member of the national team and is considered a strong candidate for the gold medal. “As I am competing on the first day of the Taekwondo event (August 7th), I need to get off to a good start so that my older brothers and sisters can also do well,” he said. I dream and have high expectations. “I will definitely win the gold medal,” he said. Lee Da-bin (women’s over-67 kg), who won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, showed motivation, saying, “I’ve won a silver medal, so now it’s time to win a gold medal.” At the Paris Olympics, four Korean athletes, including Park Tae-jun and Lee Da-bin, as well as Seo Geon-woo (men’s 80kg class) and Kim Yu-jin (women’s 57kg class), will attempt the ‘golden kick’.
Pi Joongang ([email protected])
2024-06-25 15:07:24
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