The moment of truth for Mr Oh and the French Olympic team

He could almost go unnoticed. In the background, Oh Seon Tek watches.

Oh prefers to stay in the shadows than the light. This is how he guides France’s archers, leaving telescope duties to the French federal coaches. He prefers to stay back. And analyse

We are now just a few days away from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and more than two years of preparation are coming to an end. The in-depth work is done, obstacles overcome, shooting methods acquired, it is now time to see the results.

They must be positive; they must live up to expectations.

“As head coach of the French team, what I would like the most is to obtain good results,” Mr Oh explained.

This is why Benoît Binon, France’s national technical director, brought Oh Seon Tek. The French archer federation has always had ambitions for its home Games. There was total commitment to be successful in Paris, even if it meant disrupting and breaking usual habits and codes of practice. 

“My arrival was a sudden change for the archers,” said the calm Mr Oh. “There have been a lot of changes in terms of power and length of stays. This was the first step.”

His methods, the language barrier, the cultural differences have been difficult for some to accept.

Nearly a year ago, during the fourth stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup, the test event for Paris held at Les Invalides, Oh claimed France’s overall work of preparing for the Games had been operating at 50 per cent. 

It took time, but little by little, things fell into place and France achieved their first credible result of the Olympic cycle.

In individuals, Lisa Barbelin won silver at Paris 2023 and later competed in the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final in Mexico; Jean-Charles Valladont won bronze in this year’s European Games. Despite the difficulties in understanding his demands at first, the regularity of training under Mr Oh was beginning to establish. 

“It wasn’t easy at first,” said Oh. “In recent months, we have worked on precision and technique. The archers had to master the technique that worked in training and then during competitions.”

“I wanted to have strong competition archers with me here at INSEP,” he added. “Not just archers that are good in training but repeatedly fail when there is something at stake.”

“The most important thing is regularly having stable results.”

However, the Korean has never set clear objectives for specific competitions, wanting his athletes to concentrate their efforts on their own progress rather than obsessing over success. To get better for the Olympics is the ultimate goal.

“Each competition, whether it be international or domestic, is a crossing point,” claimed Oh. “When there were mistakes, poor performances, it didn’t matter.”

“These were good learning points so we would not make the same mistakes in Paris. We sought to improve on all weak areas but also to capitalise on the strong areas and successes.”

“There were always opportunities to progress,” he added.

Even before Paris begins, Oh Seon Tek has already achieved success with France particularly in the team events, something equally important to the 63-year-old as individuals and mixed team.

In the past couple of years, the French teams have won eight international medals – six for the women’s, two for the men – half of which have been won in the previous two months.

And above all, two European team titles in Essen last May.

Mr Oh is very attentive to overall group performances and he identified two major elements that needed improving.

“There must be very little between three archers of a team. Of course, if you have an archer much stronger than the other two, that’s good. But if the second and third aren’t shooting anywhere nearer, there is very little chance of achieving results.”

It was therefore one of Oh’s main tasks to reduce the gap between every archer in terms of performance levels. This was before tackling another determining factor: cohesion.

“There is also teamwork,” the Korean continued. “It’s more of a mental aspect but still very important. Last year, we had quite a few good results thanks to the understanding between teammates, especially with the women’s team.”

“If our teams are united, the results will only get better. I insist on this message a lot with the archers. As well as performing well individually, if they increase their performance levels and atmosphere together, the teams will be even better.”

There is now hope in the French team, with a handful of days away now before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. However, Mr Oh knows better than anyone that a major obstacle awaits the French archers: defeating the almighty Korea.

If they were to win any of the team events against Korea, his experience will probably be one of the main reasons, in what would be on one of the greatest results in French archery history.

“Korea have been at a high level in archery for almost 40 years,” explained Oh Seon Tek. “They have historically the recipe to win titles, to stay at the top. They’re the world’s best.”

“But if we are stable and calm, there could be a moment where they start to feel a little pressure, stress, and mistakes start creeping into their mind. If we capitalise on this kind of moment, then we will have a chance to win.”

The six archers will need strength, courage and determination. They will undoubtedly draw this from the home crowd.

Mr Oh believes the support of the French people, the advantage of being at home, of knowing Les Invalides, of experiencing the uniqueness an Olympic Games brings in their country will be assets that his archers will have to exploit to the best of their ability.

“It’s an honour for the French team, for the archers. In their life, it will only happen once. There are advantages, but also disadvantages: the pressure, the increasing stress.”

“This is where we come back to regularity,” continued the head coach. “It creates calmness, stability, having already performed regularly at a high level regardless of the conditions.”

In a few days, Barbelin, Valladont and their teammates will show the full extent of the work carried out with the Korean coach whom they had to learnhso much from, to understand, to accept since Tokyo.

Even though Mr Oh’s preparation was tough, both mentally and physically, everything was done with one goal in mind: to win.

“After the spring competition in Bagatir, where we won medals (gold for Valladont and the men’s team, bronze for the women’s team), we were in the minibus with the archers to return to INSEP from the airport,” he recalled.

“I told them I was only feeling a little tired. They asked me why, as the competition was over whether we could rest: I told them that when you have more medals, everything is less tiring. So, I want to have as many medals as possible.”

The time has arrived for this French team, to reward more than wo years of work.

For Mr Oh, it’s the moment of truth with Paris 2024 just around the corner.