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| Taekwondo athlete In Kyo-don bites his gold medal after winning the 2017 World Taekwondo Grand Prix Series in London, Oct. 20, 2017. Yonhap |
Once washed-up athletes seek gold in Tokyo
By Lee Min-hyung
Some Korean athletes are in the spotlight for overcoming physical obstacles to get to Tokyo for the Olympic competition as members of Team Korea.
In Kyo-don, a taekwondo athlete who seeks gold in the men's over 80-kilogram division, is set to compete for the top spot on Tuesday. At the age of 29, he will make his belated Olympic debut in the upcoming matches.
He is at the center of public attention as one of the strongest contenders for the gold medal. In achieved his dream of joining the Olympics after having been diagnosed with stage 2 lymphoma back in 2014. But the taekwondo athlete eventually overcame the disease and earned the Olympic qualification.
In won a silver medal at the 2015 Summer Universiade held in the nation's southwestern city of Gwangju, which many viewed as a "surprising comeback" as a top taekwondo practitioner here in only about a year after he was diagnosed with the rare cancer.
"We will play with the can-do spirit, rather than worrying about a sense of burden," he said early this month.
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| The Korean national baseball team's pitcher Choi Won-joon throws a ball during a pre-Olympic warm-up match in Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap |
Choi Won-joon, a pitcher for Korea's national baseball team, is also a sensation as one of the icons of success among Team Korea athletes. Choi has risen to the stardom here after overcoming physical obstacles for the past five years after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer in October 2016.
The cancer was detected when he had a medical test for his home team Doosan Bears, and the cancer was surgically removed the following month. He spent the next year recovering from the surgery, but his misfortune did not end there. In December 2017, the cancer recurred and he had surgery again.
After recovering in 2018, he decided to change his name to Won-joon from Dong-hyun hoping to stop suffering from any other diseases and to focus more on baseball.
Choi and the national baseball team want to continue their winning streak in the 2020 Olympics. Korea is a defending champion in Olympic baseball after winning the 2008 Beijing Olympics by achieving nine straight wins there.
But with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voting baseball out of the 2012 and 2016 Olympics in London and Rio de Janeiro, Korea has maintained the title of defending champion in Olympic baseball for the past decade.
However, as baseball was reinstated for the Tokyo Olympics, all eyes are on whether the Korean team will be able to win another gold in the upcoming competition.
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| Archer Oh Jin-hyek draws a bow during a men's individual ranking round of the Tokyo Olympics, at the Yumenoshima Park Archery Field in the Japanese capital, July 23. Yonhap |
Archer Oh Jin-hyek has also made a surprising return to the Olympics almost a decade after winning a gold at the 2012 Olympics.
Oh was widely expected to retire back in 2017 when he suffered from a serious injury to his right shoulder. The injury was so severe that he couldn't even draw a bow.
Medical experts recommended he retire, but he did not give up his long-term goal of competing in another Olympics, even while having to take two years off to recover from the injury.
In the end, he succeeded in placing his name on the archery national team squad.
The veteran archer, 40, is the oldest among the squad, and shared his vision of leading the national team and helping clinch as many gold medals as possible. A three-member men's archery team _ led by Oh ― won a gold medal Monday.
As his shoulder has yet to make a complete recovery, expectations are that this will be the last time for Oh to take part in the Olympics.
