Korea take gold and silver in women's individual archery as Lim Si-hyeon makes it 3

Olympic Sports

Korea take gold and silver in women's individual archery as Lim Si-hyeon makes it 3

Published: 03 Aug. 2024, 22:12 Updated: 04 Aug. 2024, 18:24

JIM BULLEY
jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr

Korea's Lim Si-hyeon shoots in the women's archery individual gold medal match against teammate Nam Su-hyeon in Paris on Sunday. [AP/YONHAP]

Lim Si-hyeon won her third gold medal of the 2024 Paris Olympics on Saturday, beating Nam Su-hyeon to the women’s individual archery title as Korea took the top spots on the podium to continue a dominant run in the sport.

Lim outshot compatriot Nam 7-3 at the Invalides in Paris on Saturday, cementing her position on the top of the podium for the third time at the Games, alongside gold medals in the women’s team and mixed team events.

Nam was also part of that women’s team, making this her second medal at the Games.

Korea's Nam Su-hyeon shoots in the women's archery individual gold medal match against teammate Lim Si-hyeon in Paris on Saturday. [AP/YONHAP]

Korea narrowly missed out on a chance to sweep the podium, with Jeon Hun-young losing by a single point to France’s Lisa Barbelin in the bronze medal match. Barbelin’s medal will be the first a female French archer has ever won.

Saturday’s win takes Korea’s archery gold medal count to four out of four events, having also won the men’s team gold alongside the three already in Lim’s trophy cabinet.

The dream of a full gold medal sweep remains alive — the men’s individual contest is set to wrap up on Sunday and Lee Woo-seok, Kim Woo-jin and Kim Je-deok are all still alive in that competition.

Korea has dominated Olympic archery for decades, with 31 gold medals — more than double the No. 2 United States' haul — as of press time Saturday. Korea has never lost a women's or mixed team event, and the Olympic records in all five archery disciplines are currently held by Korean archers.

Korea won four of five available gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, missing out on only the men's individual title.

Mixed team was not competed prior to Tokyo, so if Korea is able to pull off a gold medal sweep in Paris, they will become the first team ever to win five archery gold medals at a single Olympics.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]