The Korean Archery Association has revealed the six athletes that will represent archery’s most successful nation at the Olympic Games at its 2016 edition. Its final selection shoot concluded on Tuesday 19 April.
Korea’s team comprises recurve men Kim Woojin, Ku Bonchan and Lee Seungyun and recurve women Choi Misun, Ki Bo Bae and Chang Hye Jin.
Only Ki Bo Bae, the London 2012 Olympic Champion, returns from the previous Olympic squad. Rio 2016 will mark first Olympic appearances for the five athletes that join her.
“I want to get a second gold medal at the Olympics,” Ki Bo Bae said to the on-site media gathered at the end of the selection shoot. “But, more importantly, we want to keep our team record at the Olympics.”
Korea has won every single recurve women’s team competition since the event was introduced to the Games in Seoul in 1988.
“It would be eight consecutive golds for the Korean team. We definitely want to keep our team record at the Olympics for our senior members. That is the main goal for me and the main goal for my team members, as well,” Bo Bae added.
Notable absentees from the squad list include Korea’s first men’s Olympic Champion, Oh Jin Hyek, three-time Olympian Im Dong Hyun and Kang Chae Young, the 2015 debutant who won three gold medals at her first international event, who all made the final eight-athlete shortlists but didn’t make it into the top threes selected for the Games.
Both Ki Bo Bae and Kim Woojin received bonus points in the selection process for being reigning World Archery Champions, but neither needed them. Woojin led the men’s board, while Bo Bae was a strong second behind top woman Choi Misun.
The six-athlete team will compete at the second and third stages of the 2016 Hyundai Archery World Cup in preparation for the Olympics.
