South Korea’s quest for multiple medals in taekwondo, its national martial art, will begin Wednesday in the men’s lightest weight class, -58 kilograms.
Park Tae-joon will be in action at Grand Palais in Paris. The 20-year-old defeated the 2021 Olympic bronze medalist Jang Jun in the national team trials to earn his ticket to France and is seen as a medal contender in his Olympic debut.
Also on Wednesday, the women’s golf tournament will get under way at Le Golf National, just north of Paris. South Korea will have three LPGA Tour stars in action: former world No. 1 Ko Jin-young and a pair of six-time winners in Kim Hyo-joo and Yang Hee-young.
Yang competed at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Ko and Kim were teammates in Tokyo three years ago. They are all pursuing their first career Olympic medal.
South Korea’s best medal hope in athletics, men’s high jumper Woo Sang-hyeok, will compete in the qualification at Stade de France on Wednesday. His final, should he qualify, will be Saturday.
Woo finished fou
rth at the Tokyo Olympics and will have to battle a deep field of talented jumpers for his first medal in Paris.
Woo’s personal best is 2.36 meters and his season best is 2.33. Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy, who shared the 2021 Olympic gold with Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar, owns the top mark for this season at 2.37m.
Barshim hasn’t topped 2.31m this season yet but he is expected to peak in time for the Olympics. Hamish Kerr of New Zealand (2.36m this season) and JuVaughn Harrison of the United States (2.34m) are also considered medal threats.
Source: Yonhap News Agency