The Tokyo Olympics came to an end, Sunday. Even though the Games had to be pushed back to this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it did not mean that the world's biggest sporting event was not full of storylines that will remain in viewers' memories.
During the 17-day run, some athletes walked away from the Tokyo Games with a golden glow, while others left, wishing they had done things differently.
With that in mind, let's take a short trip down memory lane for a quick review of some of the winners and losers from the 32nd Summer Games.
Winners
| Kim Yeon-koung / Yonhap |
Kim Yeon-koung
The female volleyball player may be the biggest winner of the Tokyo Olympics as she has garnered headlines with the women's team's Cinderella run through the Summer Games, one of which described her as “one in a billion.” Kim led the underdog Korean squad to victory over upper-ranked rivals, including archrival Japan and fourth-ranked Turkey, to advance to the semifinals. Although the 33-year-old failed to add an Olympic medal to her overstuffed trophy room after losing to Serbia for bronze in her Olympic swansong, Kim fully demonstrated why she is one of the highest-paid volleyball players in the world. Plus, her fans have launched a campaign to donate seedlings to help Turkey recover from devastating forest fires.
| Kim Je-deok, left, and An San / Korea Times file |
Korean archery
A regular fixture in the winners' circle of the Summer Olympics, the Korean archers exceeded pre-Games expectations, winning four gold medals, one short of a golden sweep for the second-straight time at the Games. The missing piece of the sweep came from the men's individual event. While the women's team successfully defend its Olympic title for the ninth-straight time, Olympic debutants An San, 20, and Kim Je-deok, 17, brought home three and two gold, respectively. Plus, the multiple gold medalists have yet to enter their prime, raising prospects for the upcoming Paris Olympics in three years time.
| From left are Gu Bon-gil, Kim Jung-hwan, Kim Jun-ho and Oh Sang-uk after winning a gold medal in the men's sabre team event, July 28. Joint press corps |
Korean fencing
No one had expected the Korean fencers to put on such an impressive show in Tokyo, despite the sport being labeled as Team Korea's second-best core one at the Summer Olympics next to archery. They claimed five medals ― one gold, one silver and three bronze ― behind the Russian Olympic Committee's eight and France's five. In particular, Team Korea had podium finishes in both the men's and women's team events in sabre and epee.
| Hwang Sun-woo / Korea Times file |
Koreans in water
Except for Park Tae-hwan's Olympic title in the men's 400-meter freestyle in 2008, Korea has been a nonfactor in Olympic aquatic sports. However, young athletes such as swimmer Hwang Sun-woo and divers Woo Ha-ram and Kim Su-ji are putting Korea on the map in Olympic water sports, providing a glimpse of potential medal prospects at the next Olympics. Hwang, 18, advanced to the finals in the men's 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle events, during which he broke Korean and Asian records. In particular, he was the first Asian to reach the 100-meter final since the 1952 Games. In diving, Woo Ha-ram finished fourth in the men's 3-meter springboard final, while Kim Su-ji became Korea's first female diver to pass the preliminary round at the Games.
| Caricature of Woo Sang-hyeok |
Woo Sang-hyeok
The 25-year-old high jumper came from nowhere to emerge as one of the nation's more promising athletes for the next Olympic Games. Woo made it to the final in Tokyo ― the first time in 25 years ― in which he broke the 24-year-old Korean record and finished fourth, the highest rank in the history of Korean track and field. Plus, his cheerfulness, represented by his broad grin during the competition, also left a strong impression with the public.
Companies sponsoring 'unpopular' sports
With the Korean archers claiming four gold medals in Tokyo, the spotlight has also been shone on Hyundai Motor Group, which has been committed to supporting the sport, which is relatively less popular in Korea. The automotive giant has spent 50 billion won ($43.7 million) on archery since 1985, helping Korean archers grab 26 gold medals at various Summer Olympics. SK Telecom, the largest mobile operator here, is regarded as a huge contributor to Korea's fencing success story at the latest Games. It has spent 24.2 billion won on fencing over 19 years, highlighted by the establishment of a fencing piste, which was a copy of the one at the Tokyo Games, at the National Training Center in Jincheon, North Gyeongsang Province. Steelmaker POSCO has sponsored Korean gymnasts for 37 years, whose efforts paid off this time with one gold and one bronze in gymnastics.
Losers
Japan
The Summer Games have returned to Tokyo for the first time in 57 years, including the COVID-19-caused one-year delay, with Japan hoping for an economic boost from the biggest sporting event. However, even ahead of the start of the Games, the Olympiad was hanging by a thread amid no signs of coronavirus infections abating, and the resignation of officials following a string of scandals hitting the Games hard. Its decision to proceed with the Games without any fans further dampened the Olympic vibe, dashing its hopes for economic benefits. In addition, the most expensive Olympiad in history, at $15.4 billion, is forecast to see its economic loss surpass 2 trillion yen. The Games also threw a glaring light on the country's serious situation with the pandemic as the Japanese capital logged a record number of COVID-19 cases day by day during the Games.
MBC
If there was anything that made Japan look good, it was local Korean broadcaster MBC. The TV station put itself under heavy fire after using inappropriate photos when introducing several countries, including Ukraine and Haiti, during the opening ceremony. It used an image of Chernobyl to introduce Ukraine and it got worse when its subtitles for Haiti stated that the political situation there was fogged by the assassination of the president, leading to the company boss making a public apology. However, the apology did not stop the broadcaster from taking flak after a sportscaster's disparaging comments on Korean judoka An Chang-rim's bronze medal that he described as being “not we wanted.”
Jin Jong-oh
The four-time Olympic gold medalist could have entered the pantheon as one of the greatest shooters in Olympic history although he failed to add another gold to his trophy case in Tokyo. However, his remarks belittling Javad Foroughi, the Iranian gold medalist in the men's 10-meter air pistol calling him a terrorist due to his being a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which the United States labeled a terrorist organization in 2019. Amid growing criticism of him being indiscreet with his remarks, Jin finally apologized for his “inappropriate comments.”
| Lee Dae-hoon / Korea Times file |
Korean taekwondo
Team Korea had six taekwondo practitioners for eight events at the Tokyo Olympics, the highest number sent to any Summer Games. However, they left the arena without gold for the first time since the sport became an official event in 2000 ― managing to win just one silver and two bronze. Although the taekwondo body is taking solace in the fact that the Korea-originated martial art has become globalized, as evidenced by seven countries winning gold, their sluggish performance may raise concerns that Team Korea can no longer take advantage of the sport in terms of its medal tally.
| Korean baseball players react after Korea lost to the Dominican Republic 10-6 in the bronze medal match of the Tokyo Olympics in Yokohama, Saturday. Yonhap |
Korean baseball team
Entering the Tokyo Olympics, Kim Kyung-moon's side was seeking to emulate its predecessor's achievement at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, where Team Korea won gold. However, the highly-hyped baseball team, comprised of players from the Korea Baseball Organization, left the Games without winning any medals. Things did not work out for Team Korea from the beginning as it could not field its best squad due to the removal of two key players who violated social distancing regulations and drank, raising public anger, which was further fueled by lackadaisical performances that cost it the two semifinal games against Japan and the United States. Ahead of the third-place game, a petition was posted urging the baseball players not to be exempted from military service, although they cannot be anyway. In Korea, a podium finish at the Olympics or a gold medal at the Asian Games exempts athletes from compulsory service.