South Korea at the Olympics
The Republic of Korea (commonly known as South Korea) first participated at the Olympic Games in 1948, and has sent athletes to compete in every Summer Olympic Games since then, except for 1980 which they boycotted. South Korea has also participated in every Winter Olympic Games since 1948, except for the 1952 games.
South Korea at the Olympics | |
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IOC code | KOR |
NOC | Korean Olympic Committee |
Website | www |
Medals |
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Summer appearances | |
Winter appearances | |
Other related appearances | |
Korea (2018) |
History
The first Korean athletes to win medals did so at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, when Sohn Kee-chung and Nam Sung-yong won gold and bronze respectively in the men's marathon. However, as Korea was under Japanese rule at that time, and, since both athletes were members of the Japanese team, the IOC credits both medals to Japan.
South Korea won its first medals as an independent nation at its first appearance in 1948, and won its first gold medal in 1976. South Korean athletes have won a total of 267 medals at the Summer Games, with the most gold medals won in archery, and 70 medals at the Winter Games, a majority in short track speed skating. The nation has won more medals in this winter sport than any other nation since it was introduced to the Olympic program in 1992.
The National Olympic Committee for Korea is the Korean Olympic Committee, and was founded in 1946 and recognized in 1947.
During the 1998-2007 Sunshine Policy era, South Korea and North Korea symbolically marched as one team at the opening ceremonies of the 2000, 2004 and 2006 Olympics, but competed separately.
Hosted Games
The Republic of Korea has hosted the Games on two occasions:
Games | Host city | Dates | Nations | Participants | Events |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1988 Summer Olympics | Seoul | 17 September – 2 October | 160 | 8,391 | 263 |
2018 Winter Olympics | Pyeongchang | 9 – 25 February | 92 | 2,952 | 102 |
Unsuccessful bids
Games | City | Winner of bid |
---|---|---|
2010 Winter Olympics | PyeongChang | Vancouver, Canada |
2014 Winter Olympics | PyeongChang | Sochi, Russia |
Medal tables
- *Red border colour indicates tournament was held on home soil.
Medals by summer sport Leading in that sport
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Medals by winter sport Leading in that sport
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Most successful Olympians
Athlete | Sport | Type | Olympics | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jin Jong-oh | Shooting | Summer | 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
Kim Soo-Nyung | Archery | Summer | 1988, 1992, 2000 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
Chun Lee-Kyung | Short track speed skating | Winter | 1992, 1994, 1998 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
Park Sung-hyun | Archery | Summer | 2004, 2008 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
Ahn Hyun-Soo | Short track speed skating | Winter | 2002, 2006 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
Jin Sun-Yu | Short track speed skating | Winter | 2006 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Yun Mi-Jin | Archery | Summer | 2000, 2004 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Kim Ki-Hoon | Short track speed skating | Winter | 1992, 1994 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Notes
On 11 February 2014, Lee Sang-hwa won the gold medal for the women's 500m longtrack speedskating race at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, having previously won the one at the 2010 Games. She became the third woman and first Korean woman to win back-to-back golds at the 500m.[1][2]
Yuna Kim is the champion of figure skating, she won all the gold medals till 2010. Yoon Seongbin won a gold medal at Pyeongchang 2018, a skeleton for the first time and also became a skeleton king.
Participated event by competition
Summer Olympics
Nation | 48 | 52 | 56 | 60 | 64 | 68 | 72 | 76 | 84 | 88 | 92 | 96 | 00 | 04 | 08 | 12 | 16 | 20 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Archery | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||||||||
Athletics | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||
Badminton | d | e | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||||||||
Baseball | d | d | d | d | d | • | • | • | ||||||||||
Basketball | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||||
Bowling | d | |||||||||||||||||
Boxing | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | |
Canoeing and kayaking | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||||||
Cycling | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||
Diving | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||||
Equestrian | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||||||
Fencing | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||||
Field hockey | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||||||
Football | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||||
Golf | • | |||||||||||||||||
Gymnastics | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||
Handball | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||||||||
Judo | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||
Modern pentathlon | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||||||||
Rowing | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||||
Sailing | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||||||||
Shooting | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||
Swimming | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||
Synchronized swimming | • | • | • | • | ||||||||||||||
Table tennis | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||||||
Taekwondo | d | d | • | • | • | • | • | |||||||||||
Tennis | d | d | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||||||
Triathlon | • | |||||||||||||||||
Volleyball | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||
Water polo | • | |||||||||||||||||
Weightlifting | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||
Wrestling | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • |
- d : demonstration sports
- e : exhibition sports
Winter Olympics
Event | 48 | 56 | 60 | 64 | 68 | 72 | 76 | 80 | 84 | 88 | 92 | 94 | 98 | 02 | 06 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 22 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alpine skiing | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||
Biathlon | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||||||
Bobsleigh | • | • | • | ||||||||||||||||
Cross country skiing | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||||
Curling | • | • | |||||||||||||||||
Figure skating | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||
Freestyle skiing | • | • | • | • | |||||||||||||||
Ice hockey | • | ||||||||||||||||||
Luge | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||||||||||||
Nordic combined | • | ||||||||||||||||||
Short track speed skating | d | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||||||
Skeleton | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||||||||||
Ski jumping | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||||||||||||
Snowboarding | • | • | • | ||||||||||||||||
Speed skating | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • |
- d : Demonstration sports
2020 unified Korea team
On November 2, 2018, officials from both North and South Korea announced that their countries would participate at the 2020 Summer Olympics, held in Tokyo, Japan, as a unified Korean team.[3][4]
References
- James O'Brien (2014-02-11). "Heather Richardson falls short of medal, Lee Sang-hwa wins 500m gold". NBC News.
- Yonhap News Agency (2014-02-11). "(Olympics) Speed skater Lee Sang-hwa poised for gold in women's 500 meters". GlobalPost.
- "North and South Korea plan to compete together at Tokyo 2020". CNN. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
- "North, South Korea combining for 2020 Olympics". KMGH. 2018-11-02. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
External links
- "Republic of Korea". International Olympic Committee.
- "South Korea". Olympedia.com.
- "Olympic Analytics/KOR". olympanalyt.com.
See also
- South Korea at the Paralympics
- List of flag bearers for South Korea at the Olympics
- Category:Olympic competitors for South Korea
- South Korea at the Asian Games