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Korean badminton is preparing to light a firework at the 2024 Paris Olympics after completing a generational change.
Badminton has been Korea’s representative Olympic ‘filial piety sport’.
At the 1992 Barcelona Games, when badminton was first adopted as an official Olympic event, they won four medals: two gold medals and one silver and one bronze medal each. 카지노사이트 추천
At the 1996 Atlanta Games, they won two gold medals and two silver medals.
Although they faltered somewhat at the 2000 Sydney Games, they continued the gold streak with Kim Dong-moon and Ha Tae-kwon in the men’s doubles at the 2004 Athens Games and Lee Yong-dae and Lee Hyo-jung in the mixed doubles at the 2008 Beijing Games.
However, since then, Korean badminton has been in a long slump.
From the 2012 London Games to the 2020 Tokyo Games, it has only won one bronze medal in three consecutive games, suffering the humiliation of not winning a gold medal for 16 years.
The prevailing opinion was that the generational change failed after key players such as Lee Yong-dae retired.
This competition is an opportunity to announce the revival of Korean badminton.
As a result of steadily nurturing young players with the idea of laying the foundation for generational change, women's singles An Se-young (22), women's doubles Lee So-hee (30)-Baek Ha-na (23), Kim So-young (31)-Gong Hee-yong (27), men's doubles Seo Seung-jae (26)-Kang Min-hyeok (25), and mixed doubles Seo Seung-jae-Chae Yu-jeong (29) have risen to the top ranks.
The national badminton team swept two gold medals (women's singles and women's team), two silver medals (men's doubles and women's doubles), and three bronze medals (women's doubles, mixed doubles, and men's team) at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games held in October last year.
Since Asian countries are strong in the sport, the wall is not particularly high just because it is the Olympics.
At the center of the national team, which aims for the most gold medals ever, is world No. 1 Ahn Se-young. Last year, she won 10 international championships, was runner-up three times, and won the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Female Player of the Year award.
Ahn Se-young is considered a strong candidate for the gold medal at this tournament.
With her tireless stamina and wide defensive range, she is still considered one of the best in the world.
The variable is her knee, which has not fully recovered.
She suffered a knee injury during the Asian Games finals and experienced a brief slump early this year.
Since she will have to run with pain in this tournament as well, it will inevitably become a burden if the race is long.
Ahn Se-young, who has adopted a strategy of shortening the game time through aggressive match management, said, “I plan to give it my all at the Paris Olympics,” and “I want to show my ceremonies more often in Paris with a smile rather than crying.”
Ahn Se-young shed tears after losing to her rival Chen Yufei (China) in the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Games three years ago.
The Paris Olympic badminton competition will be held from the 27th to August 5th at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena in Paris.
Ahn Se-young, who dreams of a spectacular finale on the last day of the badminton event, said, “I have gone through many trials, changes, and adversities that I didn’t have to go through to get here,” and added, “I hope that this Olympics will be an opportunity for me to shake off everything and play badminton comfortably by winning a gold medal.”