He said he gave everything he had to that final arrow, not knowing when he would have another opportunity like this.
Kim Woo-jin, locked in a memorable duel against Brady Ellison of the United States in the final of the men’s individual archery event at the Paris Olympics on Sunday, was the first to go in their sudden-death shoot-off.
After five sets, the two veterans, with a combined eight Olympic appearances, were tied at 5-5. The fifth set was a thing of beauty, as Kim and Ellison each put up a perfect 30 — hitting 10s with their three arrows — to set up the shoot-off.
Kim went first and hit a 10. Ellison matched that 10, but Kim’s arrow was closer to the center, making the South Korean archer the champion by about 5 millimeters.
“I don’t remember being this nervous in any match before,” Kim said afterward. “I wanted to stay calm and not try to do too much, but it was much easier said than done. This was not an easy match and I did the best I could.”
Kim made history on multiple levels with that fi
nal shot.
Kim’s victory gave South Korea a clean sweep of all five archery gold medals in Paris, as the archery powerhouse won the men’s individual, men’s team, women’s individual, women’s team and mixed team titles.
South Korea also swept all archery titles up for grabs at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, but the mixed team event was not contested then. When it made its Olympic debut in Tokyo five years later, South Korea ended up winning four out of five gold medals at stake, missing out only on the men’s individual event. Now South Korea is the first country to win five archery gold medals at a single Olympics.
“I didn’t accomplish this on my own,” Kim said. “This has been a total team effort, all the way from the head of our national federation to team staff members, coaches and my teammates. Everyone came together to write history.”
With five career gold medals, Kim has now won more Olympic gold medals than any other South Korean athlete, summer or winter.
He had been tied with former archer Kim So
o-nyung, former shooter Jin Jong-oh and former short track speed skater Chun Lee-kyung.
Kim is the first male archer to win three gold medals at a single Olympics. On the women’s side, two South Koreans had pulled off that hat trick before Kim: An San in 2021 and Lim Si-hyeon in Paris this year.
With so much riding on that last arrow, Kim delivered as he often had in his long and successful career.
“I did my absolute best, thinking this would be my last arrow ever (in the Olympics),” the 32-year-old said. “And with the five gold medals, I think we’ve proven once again we’re the best.”
This was Kim’s third consecutive Olympics, making him only the fourth South Korean archer to compete at three Summer Games in a row. Considering the depth of the South Korean archery talent pool and the challenging nature of the national team trials, it’s difficult enough to make it to back-to-back Olympics, let alone three in a row. The list of Olympic medalists who didn’t qualify for the next competition is long.
Before S
unday, Kim had won virtually every title an archer could win except for an Olympic individual medal. All four of his previous Olympic gold medals had come in team events. Then the dramatic win over Ellison gave Kim the final piece in a puzzle already full of many great moments.
“I am really happy that I’ve finished this puzzle,” Kim said. “I feel like I’ve completed my last mission.”
Even though he might have given off an impression that this would be his final Olympics, Kim insisted he is not about to stop now.
“I have no plans to retire. I will keep going,” Kim said. “Even the medal I won today will be in the past come tomorrow. When tomorrow comes, I will set a new goal and start moving toward that.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency