Olympics: How Korea emerged as a power-house in archery

Kim Je Deok is just 17 but is already a sports sensation back home in Korea. He won two gold medals in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics and had already won fame at home for an appearance on a 2016 television talent show as an archery genius. He is the youngest South Korean Olympic gold medallist.

There is also An San, 20, who defeated Deepika Kumari in the quarterfinal of the women's individual event and who is the first archer to win three gold at a single Games - the women's individual, women's team event and the mixed team event.

South Korea rounded off a fairly "successful" Olympics in archery by winning four gold medals. It could not, however, make it five out of five, missing out in the men's individual event. For most countries, a haul of four gold in one event would be sensational; but, in Korea, missing out on one more will be considered no less than catastrophic. Prior to the Tokyo Olympics, Korea had claimed 23 of the 34 gold awarded in the sport since 1984. The Koreans have won archery gold in every Games since 1984. The women's team, in particular, has been a dominant force.

When South Korea won its ninth consecutive gold medal in the women's team archery event at the Tokyo Olympics, it also tied with the record for the longest gold medal streak in Olympic history. It matched the nine straight golds of the United States in the men's swimming 4x100m medley relay and Kenya in the men's 3000m steeplechase.

So, what makes Korea such a formidable force in the sport?

There are multiple factors but, perhaps, the foremost being a system that has prevailed for decades with a single aim of producing champions in the game. South Korea has an enviable depth in its domestic archery. Largely built on a system of full-time student-athletes and professional squads, sponsored and run by government authorities or companies from all corners of Korean industry.

In South Korea, each big corporate is encouraged to adopt one major sport; archery, for example, has had the strong support of Hyundai Motor Group. It has been supporting the team with state-of-the-art technologies like artificial intelligence, biometric information, big data and 3D printing, to enhance accuracy and provide customised strategies for the national archery team.

Support and system aside, archers are identified early – Kim, for instance, is still in high school. He first tried archery in the third grade. By fifth grade, he was dreaming of competing on the international stage. There is a rigorous coaching system in place - those who make it through the programme get supported by one of the dozens of teams affiliated with national corporations and universities.

Such is the strong competition at home that making it to the national team itself is tougher than getting to the Olympics! Compare this to India, where one archer has largely been our only medal hope.

The coaches are higly trained and impart scientific training to the archers. The brief for the coaches is clear – go for gold at the Olympics.

Before the Rio 2016 Games, Korean archers trained at a live baseball game, an unorthodox way to expose them to a pressure situation. Pre-Tokyo Games, practice sessions at the national training centre in Jincheon took place in an arena modelled after the one the archers will get in Tokyo. Video screens, audience stands and banners where they are likely to be positioned at the Olympics, were installed; simulated loudspeaker announcements in English and Japanese were done.

The selection of the team for Olympics is not dependent merely on rankings; the coaches pick the team for Olympics. Chang Hye-jin, who won two gold medals at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and Ku Bon-chan, who did the same in the men's event, could not make it to the South Korean Olympic squad this time. Olympic selection goes like this: top 200 archers vie for six tickets—for three men and three women—with no regard for rankings or past performances. But Kim was selected not through this selection procedure. The coaches picked him based on his extraordinary talent.

Interestingly, the South Korean archery teams' briefs are mainly to win the gold medals in Asian and Olympic Games. Unlike India, which is ecstatic with its archers' performances at World Cups, these competitions are not necessarily given the same weightage in Korea. Deepika Kumari, for example, has beaten An San in the Olympic test event three months before the Olympics. But, at the Tokyo Games, it was the Korean who prevailed over the Indian. Kumari, who won three golds at the World Cup stage three in Paris ahead of Tokyo Olympics, went in as world number 1 but failed to go past the quarterfinals in her third Olympics.