Olympic contenders: Li Jiaman | Les Huit à Paris 2024

This article series, Les Huit à Paris, spotlights eight of the biggest contenders for the individual titles at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

It’s been 10 long years since the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing.

That event was designed as a proving ground for young talent – talent that would eventually make the podiums at the main Games. The competition in Nanjing was won by Lee Woo Seok of Korea, who will make his senior Olympic debut in Paris, and China’s Li Jiaman.

It took both of them 10 years to finally make the big dance.

But Jiaman, in particular, feels on the cusp of something phenomenal.

Quick stats

• Name:  Li Jiaman, China
• Age: 26
• World ranking: 15
• Olympic caps: 0

Why it could happen

Four times in Olympic history - 1992, 2004, 2008 and 2012 – the Chinese women’s team have been the bridesmaids, taking silver to Korea’s gold.

That clash between the two Asian powerhouses – one that Korea has dominated – quietened at recent editions of the Olympics. 

Now, it’s all anyone can talk about.

Archery’s leading nation has a chance to win an historic 10th consecutive title in the event – but the Korean squad’s rookie line-up has been beaten twice, by Jiaman and China, already in 2024. One defeat might be written off as a blip. It's happened before. But the second – on Korean soil – seemed like a humiliation.

Li Jiaman’s been shooting domestically for 10 years. Out of the international spotlight, she‘s somehow morphed into a leader. She’s the voice, the engine and the soul of a surging Chinese team.

And it’s the team result that will likely define her individual outcome.

A win, an upset as historic as the potential result would push Jiaman’s confidence sky-high, a legitimate contender to deliver the biggest result for China since Zhang Juan Juan’s victory in 2008.

Li seems destined to deliver.

Why it might not

There’s a glaring omission from Li’s post-Nanjing resume – evidence of an international win. There’s been bronze medals in big Asian competitions, but nothing else.

At the second stage of this year’s Hyundai Archery World Cup in Yecheon, Li and Lim swapped places at the top of the leaderboard throughout the ranking round, with the Korean archer eventually placing first – but only just.

One month earlier Li and Lim met in the individual semifinal. Lim took it in a shoot-off.

The Chinese archer beat Kang Chae Young to the bronze medal at the 2023 Asian Archery Championships and had another bronze at the Asian Games, held not long before. Almost, almost, almost, almost…

If Jiaman made the podium in Paris, it would be China’s first medal at an Olympic Games since 2012, two years before she won the Youth Olympics.

Did you know? 

Zhang Juan Juan not only won the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, but she won it by beating all three Korean women, consecutively, one after the other.

First, Joo Hyun Jung (106-101) in the quarterfinals, then Yun Ok Hee (115-109) in the semis, and then the famous one-point upset over defending champion Park Sung-Hyun (110-109)– one of the greatest archery Olympians of all time – in the final.

The bow Zhang used to win gold in Beijing now hangs in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, a testament to an incredible – and shocking – moment in the Olympic history of this sport…

History does have a habit of repeating itself.