Korean Olympic Squad Labors
to Rank in Top 10 in Medal Tally

Beijing Olympics could be the toughest challenge facing Korea


With 30 days to go until the opening of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Korean national contingent is sweating to keep themselves in good shape at the Korea National Training Center, the home of Korea's sport activities for 40 years, with their determination to realize the goal of ranking among the top 10 in the Olympic medal tally.
Lee Elisa, secretary general of the Korea National Training Center in Taeneung, east of Seoul, said, "Korea faces the toughest challenges in Korean sports history to make it to the top 10 list, but it depends on whether the Korean contingent will overcome China's expected home field advantage."No Korean sports official is as much on edge about how many gold medals the Korean team could gain during the 2008 Beijing Olympics as Lee, a former Olympic table tennis star, who has been dogged with an obsession that she has to help the Korean national team earn better achievements as she is on the last year of her four-year tenure as the head of the national training center.
"We're going to leave with the main contingent on August 1. I'm still as nervous as the athletes about the Olympic Games, being held on the last year of my tenure, but I'm always all smiles before the athletes since the head of the national training center cannot express any misgivings like the mother of kids."She's now being swept away with taking pictures as a hobby to relieve the tension she suffers these days. For her, the national training center that opened its doors in 1966 seems like her hometown where she began to receive training as an athlete in 1969 and returned as the chief of the training center 40 years later. Lee is engrossed in photographing every nook and cranny of the center where she has been staying, but her mind is fixated on the Beijing Olympics where she thinks Korean athletes might be swayed by China's expected offensive on their own turf.
The Korean Olympic team faces the toughest challenges from its opponents in Korea's traditionally strong medal-winning sports arenas, including taekwondo and archery. An analysis of the Archery World Cup Competition shows that Korea's opponents have been assessed to make a strong showing. It is too early to predict whether or not Korea will sweep the upcoming taekwondo competitions.
Lee bets that Korea should bag at least 10 gold medals in order to make it to the top-10 medal tally comfortably. Her prediction is that Korea is most likely to garner two gold medals each in archery and taekwondo and three others each in judo and wrestling, but whether the nation would attain the top 10 goal depends on how well Korean athletes in other sports do. Korean swimming and weightlifting stars, Park Tae-hwan and Chang Mi-ran are prospective gold medal winners with a probability of 50:50. Men's gymnastics, men's hockey and women's handball are among possible wound-be gold medal sports, but they are not that upbeat, she said.
"Frankly speaking, Korea is not assured of a gold medal in nearly all sports arenas, except wrestling and judo where a target of winning a gold medal is set, but the real thing we should do is to shut out our rivals in a way that the home ground advantage may be ignored,"she said.
Korea made unprecedented achievements: snatching a record 12 gold medals to rank fourth in the 1988 Seoul Olympics and seventh in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics before dropping the gold medal tally to seven (10th ranking) in Atlanta.
High expectations from without are forced to set a target of staying on the top 10 medal tally standing, but Lee is apparently unhappy with the way athletes are assessed by how many medals they won and what the color is of the medal they won whenever each Olympics ends.
"Take a look at the Beijing Olympics. The downside of the excessive attachment of a win or a loss is the belittling of the precious value of the sweat athletes have poured during training. Recognizing the value of the sweat is more important than sending congratulations on winning medals."Lee appears to pay keen attention to the health of Korean athletes rather than winning medals even though the Beijing Olympics is around the corner. nw

Lee Elisa, secretary general of the Korean National Training Center, poses with NewsWorld Publisher-President Elizabeth M. Oh and Shim Heung-taek, president of the Korean Swimming Federation.

Korea's archery squad shows their resolution for victory during a practice prior to their participation in 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.