PARIS — South Korea continued its successful campaign at the Paris Olympics by adding two more gold medals to its tally on Saturday, bringing its total to nine. Archer Lim Si-hyeon emerged as a standout performer, securing her third gold medal of the games and completing a historic hat trick.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Lim Si-hyeon defeated her teammate Nam Su-hyeon 7-3 in a monumental all-South Korean final in the women's archery individual event, marking the first such final in 20 years. Another South Korean, Jeon Hun-young, narrowly missed a podium finish, placing fourth. This close call almost led to a third South Korean podium sweep in the history of the Olympics for women's archery, previously achieved in 1988 and 2000.
Lim's trio of golds began with victories in the women's team and mixed team events, marking her as South Korea's first triple gold medalist in Paris. On the same day, another gold was claimed by Yang Ji-in in the women's 25-meter pistol shooting event. Yang triumphed over France's Camille Jedrzejewski 4-1 in a tense shoot-off after both competitors were tied at the end of the regular rounds.
This year’s achievements in shooting marked a significant improvement for South Korea, which only managed one silver medal in the sport at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. In Paris, South Korea has accumulated three golds and two silvers in shooting alone.
South Korea’s nine golds so far have been earned in archery, shooting, and fencing. Although the South Korean women’s sabre team reached the finals in fencing, they were defeated by Ukraine with a score of 45-42 after a dramatic comeback led by Ukrainian Olga Kharlan.
In other events, South Korea secured a bronze medal in the mixed team judo event, defeating Germany. This was South Korea's first medal in this relatively new Olympic event, which debuted three years ago. The country concluded the judo events with an overall tally of two silver and three bronze medals.
Additional achievements included An Se-young’s advance to the women’s singles badminton semifinals after defeating world-ranked competitor Akane Yamaguchi of Japan. Meanwhile, in artistic gymnastics, Yeo Seo-jeong finished seventh in the women's vault final after an injury setback, having dislocated her shoulder during a training session.