The 32nd edition of the Summer Olympics had to be postponed by one year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the July 23-Aug. 8 event will be the first Olympics to take place in an odd-numbered year. The countdown will reach 30 days Wednesday. Against this backdrop, South Korean athletes, vaccinated and itching to compete after a one-year delay, will try to extend the country's successful run at the Summer Olympics. South Korea has ranked inside the top 10 in medal races at each of the past fo

At 41, the South Korean Olympic shooting legend Jin Jong-oh knows his time as a competitive athlete may be reaching its end. But he insisted this week he doesn't want to get pushed to that point and that he will call his own shots. Jin will be competing at his fifth Olympics in Tokyo this summer. Over his four appearances, Jin captured four gold medals and two silver medals. He's tied with former archer Kim Soo-nyung for most Olympic medals by a South Korean athlete. To even qualify for the T

Young South Korean football players hoping to compete at the Tokyo Summer Games will be raring to take the field Tuesday, when they'll have one last opportunity to build their case for inclusion on the 18-man Olympic squad. Of 28 players at training camp for the men's Olympic football team, 18 saw action in the first of two friendlies against Ghana on Saturday. Head coach Kim Hak-bum had long declared he would use all 28 players across these two matches. But then he added two more players into

South Korean karate practitioner Park Hee-jun has earned the qualification for the Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first Korean to book an Olympic spot in the category, a sports association here said Sunday. Park, 27, qualified for the upcoming games after winning a bronze in male kata at an Olympic qualification tournament that took place in Paris on Saturday (local time), according to the Korea Karate Federation. Kata is a non-sparring karate event in which practitioners demonstrate the Japanes

Seoul's drive for co-hosting the 2032 Summer Olympics with Pyongyang has come to an end, following a decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to name an Australian city as the only candidate up for a member vote next month. Following its Executive Board meeting on Thursday (local time), the IOC said the fate of Brisbane as the host of the 2032 Olympics will be "in the hands" of its members. In what's expected to be a mere formality, those members will vote on Brisbane's c

Athletes set to participate in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will receive COVID-19 vaccines starting this week, the national sporting committee said Tuesday. Around 100 athletes and coaches will get Pfizer's vaccines as the first recipient group on Thursday, and around 500 others will be inoculated by May 4, according to the Korea Sport and Olympic Committee. About 330 officials and training partners, who are also to take part in the summer games, will be vaccinated in May and

With the Tokyo Olympics kicking off in less than 100 days, athletes are buckling down for intense training at the Jincheon National Training Center in North Chungcheong Province, in the hopes of winning medals.  According to Gracenote, a US sports data analysis company, South Korea is projected to finish 10th overall at the upcoming Olympics with nine gold medals. To reach this goal, athletes from various disciplines are making their best efforts despite the uncertainties of COVID-19. 

JINCHEON -- Given that South Korea is the birthplace of taekwondo, it'd be easy to assume the country would simply bulldoze the competition at the Olympic Games. South Korea does lead the all-time taekwondo medal table with 12 gold medals, but the country has been far from dominant in recent years. At the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, South Korea grabbed two out of eight gold medals, with five other countries also claiming at least a gold. South Korea understands parity in international taekwo

JINCHEON -- Fencing at the Olympic Games has long been the domain of European countries, but pesky and scrappy underdogs from South Korea have come on strong of late. South Korea's major breakthrough came at the 2012 London Olympics, where it captured two gold, one silver and three bronze medals, trailing only Italy in both the gold medal and the total medal tallies. Medals came from all three disciplines, too, with a silver and a bronze in epee, two bronze medals in foil and two gold medals in

South Korea is projected to capture nine gold medals to finish 10th overall at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, a US sports data analysis firm said Thursday. The latest version of the Virtual Medal Table by Gracenote, updated Wednesday with the countdown to the Tokyo Games reaching 100 days, also projected South Korea to add 10 silver and six bronze medals. Gracenote, which updates its medal projections in the leadup to the Olympic Games, didn't offer a sport-by-sport breakdown. In its previous e

The Olympic dream for the South Korean women's football team crashed and burned on Tuesday, as they frittered away a two-goal lead against China in the final qualifying match. South Korea and China played to a 2-2 draw in the second leg of their playoff for the Tokyo Olympics at Suzhou Olympic Sports Centre in Suzhou, China. Following their 2-1 victory in the first leg last Thursday, China advanced to the Tokyo Olympics on a 4-3 edge in the aggregate score. With the away goals rule in effect,

The countdown to the Tokyo Olympic Summer Games will reach 100 days Wednesday, if the competition opens as scheduled, that is. The 32nd edition of the Summer Olympics already got postponed by one year due to the global coronavirus pandemic, and the normally quadrennial event, now scheduled for July 23-Aug. 8 in the Japanese capital, will open in an odd-numbered year for the first time. Even as the clock ticks down to the opening ceremony, the cloud of uncertainty still hangs over Tokyo. The CO

TOKYO (AFP) -- Spectators will be barred from the start of the Tokyo Olympics torch relay, organisers said Monday, announcing a pared-back launch as the countdown to the postponed Games begins in earnest. Fans were told to stay away from next week's "simplified" starting ceremony and first leg of the nationwide relay, which was put on hold a year ago when the Olympics were delayed over the coronavirus. "The grand start ceremony and the first section of the Fukushima torch relay.

Even if he ends up acquiring Chinese nationality in hopes of competing at the Beijing Winter Olympics, South Korean-born short track speed skater Lim Hyo-jun is unlikely to accomplish that goal because of international rules. Lim, the 2018 Olympic champion in the men's 1,500 meters, announced Saturday he was undergoing a special naturalization process to acquire a Chinese passport. He had been going through a protracted legal battle over sexual harassment charges and decided he wouldn't be able

Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is being asked to rule on an ethics complaint filed against the International Olympic Committee by a human-rights group representing Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is being asked to rule on an ethics complaint filed against the International Olympic Committee by a human-rights group representing Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China. Ban is the chairman of the IOC's ethics commission. The Wor