South Korea wins all 2024 Olympic archery gold medals

South Korean archers played 34 matches at the Paris Olympics, including both individual and team events, with 33 wins and only one loss. The only loss by a South Korean archer was to Lee Woo-seok, who lost to his compatriot Kim Woo-jin in the men's singles recurve semifinals on the evening of August 4, Hanoi time.

Kim reached the final, defeating American opponent Brady Ellison 6-5 in the "golden arrow" tie-break. After a 5-5 draw, the two archers shot a single arrow, then calculated the distance to the center. Kim's arrow was 0.055 m from the center, just 0.005 m more than Ellison's.

The thrilling victory helped the 32-year-old archer win his fifth Olympic gold medal, and his first men's singles title at the Games. He helped South Korea win all five gold medals in Paris. Of these, Kim and female archer Lim Si-hyeon shined with three gold medals, from the individual, team and mixed doubles events.

Archery will also be the first event to end the 2024 Olympics with a single team winning all the gold medals. South Korea has won 64% of archery gold medals since it began competing in the sport 40 years ago. South Korea has won 13 of the last 14 gold medals in the sport at the Olympics.

In Korea, archery is an elective subject starting in elementary school. Students who sign up will study culture in the morning and shoot archery in the afternoon. Twenty-year-old archer Kim Je Deok, who won two gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics at the age of 17, said he shot 300 to 500 arrows a day since elementary school.

Archery also accounts for 50% of the gold medals won by South Korea at the 2024 Olympics. Of the 10 gold medals won by the delegation, five were from archery, three from shooting and two from fencing. These are also the three sports considered the strongest for South Korea at the Olympics.