Korean Archery And The Heroes

Korean Archery And The Heroes
By Lorens Lee

NOTE: This article was originally intended for publication in August 2012.

“Every moment is a match. You are the genuine professional, so you should live with professionalism. At least if you are a leader of one group, you should be in time when you are needed for others.”

This is what an executive director of Korea Archery Association strongly said to Korean archery athletes. And this advice shows the reason archery athletes have dominated the Olympics. Then why do people in the world say Korea archery is a superpower that nobody can stop the landslide victory of? According to the statistics of the Korea Archery Association, female teams of Korean athletes have succeeded to consecutively obtain seven gold medals in the Olympics, including a medal won in this year’s London Olympic Games. Moreover, in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the word “perfect gold” was created because of Kim Kyung Wook’s successful shooting of an arrow. And finally, male teams of national Korean athletes broke a world record and they scored 699 points.

All of these accomplishments demonstrate the status of Korea archery. Then at this moment, most people are curious of the secrets of Korea archery. We can see two main secrets: fairness and purity.

Fairness
There have been some cases of corruption and lobbying to be a national Korean athlete in other sports, but archery, it has had none of those kinds of unjust actions. For instance, the committee and associated organization open all breakdown of budget execution to the public in every selection process. There is no recommendation or wild card policy for outstanding athletes, so every national athlete is selected solely by consideration of their grades during training and matches. Furthermore, there is no extra point for athletes who have won medals in the previous Olympics. Hence, since the steps for becoming national athletes of Korea archery are greatly fair, archery players in Korea are inspired to practice hard. Sometimes, a decomposed athletic environment during selection process makes comparatively poor players realize a harsh and cold-hearted reality, demotivating them. However, as the policy and association both are highly innocent and transparent, there is no excuse of failure or controversy in the archery field. Fairness in selection and treatment is the best way to distinguish the best athletes for satisfactory results in the Olympics.

Purity
Have you ever anticipated how many arrows are used at each practice of archery athletes? According to one news report, about three hundred to four hundred arrows are used during their training, which means the athletes shoot that much quantity of arrows during each training period. When extreme foreign reporters ask Korean archery athletes the question about secrets of their wonderful ability, they always answer “We don’t have any secrets or keys related to our talents. All we can say is that we have practiced harder than any others.” Some reporters are exhausted by their most simple and exemplary answer, but it is right and there are no other rather special keys of it – according to Korean archery athletes. However, after the reporters listen about their real daily discipline, nobody would have objections. Firstly, Korean athletes shoot nearly infinite arrows every day as already recognized above. Second of all, the coaches make numerous situations to prepare for abrupt changes in the Olympics, such as the changes in weather they face in various matches. Actually, it may sound humorous, but in this year, Korean women athletes have visited baseball stadiums and practiced shooting to adapt to unfamiliar atmosphere and a large number of spectators’ voice interruption. Moreover, they even went to an army recruit training center for the same reasons: to adapt abnormal situations and backgrounds. Korean archery teams anticipate all the matters that could occur in the Olympic Games and undergo strenuous preparation for them. Then, in light of the athletes’ efforts and strong will, they won the gold medals!

Here is the answer of the question – who deserves to be praised of successful archery in the Olympics? We can say either it is athletes’ couches who have prepared strategy for them, or the fans who wait and sincerely cheer for the athletes. However, overall, athletes themselves deserve to be praised of their victory. They would have had agony from harsh training and pressure that they should win medals, and they eventually overcome those hardships. They are the best heroes of the Olympics in Koreans’ hearts.