Im Ae-ji, Park Tae-joon close Paris Olympics for Team Korea, who end with 13 gold

Im Ae-ji, Park Tae-joon close Paris Olympics for Team Korea, who end with 13 gold

 

 

 

 

 

Athletes from around the world bid farewell to the Paris Olympics Sunday as the closing ceremony at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France wrapped up 17 days of action.

 

A parade of nations, with athletes again bearing their countries' flags, began at the grandiose stadium with an 80,000-large crowd celebrating the Olympians in song.

 

Taekwondo practitioner Park Tae-joon and boxer Im Ae-ji entered the stadium with the Korean flag. Park won a gold medal in the men’s -58-kilogram category to bring the country’s first gold in taekwondo since 2016, while Im secured bronze in the women's bantamweight to become the first female Korean boxer to medal at the Games.

 

 

 

Musical performances by French indie rock band Phoenix and Cambodian rapper Vannda amped up the stadium's festival energy, with athletes dancing around and waving their flags.

 

It didn’t stop there. To introduce Los Angeles as the host city for the 2028 Olympics, Hollywood star Tom Cruise made an airborne cameo, descending from the roof before landing on the ground, grabbing the Olympic flag and exiting the stadium on a motorbike.

 

 

 

A video then showed him riding through Paris and flying to Los Angeles to carry the flag to Hollywood.

 

This year’s Olympics ended with the United States topping the medal table with 126 medals, followed by 91 from China and 45 from Japan.

 

 

 

Korea finished in No. 8 with 32 medals — 13 gold, nine silver and 10 bronze — which came despite the country sending its smallest delegation to the Olympics since 1976. The number of gold medals matched the standing record, with Korea having won 13 apiece at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

 

This year’s success was partly thanks to the Korean archers who swept gold medals in all five categories. The country’s dominance was clear, especially in the women’s individual contest where the final was an all-Korean affair between eventual gold medalist Lim Si-hyeon and silver medalist Nam Su-hyeon.

 

The women’s archery team of Lim, Nam and Jeon Hun-young won the country’s 10th straight Olympic gold in the women's team discipline.

 

Korean shooters were also a big part of the country’s impressive medal run, winning six medals — three gold and three silver.

 

Athletes also put an end to long medal droughts in sports like table tennis and swimming, both in which no Korean athletes had reached the podium since 2012.

 

Table tennis duo Shin Yu-bin and Lim Jong-hooncut the 12-year medal-less streak by winning a bronze medal in the mixed doubles event. Shin later made it two, winning bronze with Jeon Ji-hee and Lee Eun-hye in the women's team table tennis contest.

 

Elsewhere, Kim Woo-min also took bronzein the men’s 400-meter freestyle and became the first Korean swimmer to medal since Park Tae-hwan won silver in London.

 

Korea walks away with zero medals in team sports this year, however, as the women’s handball team crashed out of the race in the group stage and all other teams like football and volleyball failed to even qualify for the Olympics.

 

While the Olympics is over in Paris, the French capital will soon hold another international competition: The 2024 Paralympics, set to run from Aug. 28 through Sept. 8.

 

 

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]

 

코리아중앙데일리

 

 

 

 

 

2024.08.09 - [Study of English] - S. Korea ties own Olympic record of 13 gold medals, aims to beat it

S. Korea ties own Olympic record of 13 gold medals, aims to beat it