The 2012 London Olympics kicked off Friday with a spectacular opening ceremony inspired by William Shakespeare plays, assembling 10,490 athletes from 204 nations, who will compete for gold during the 17-day run to be filled with unscripted human dramas.
London now has the record of hosting the Summer Olympic Games for an unprecedented third time, an honor that might well go to the British, who either invented or codified nearly every single international sport, as city mayor Boris Johnson once put it.
For South Korea, the 2012 Games marks a return to the city where the country made its Olympic debut in 1948, three years after being liberated from Japan’s colonial rule. This sense of history is reflected on the catchphrase of its latest Olympic squad ― “From London to London.”
More than 1 million Koreans joined a fundraising campaign to send their first Olympians to London even before the official establishment of the government in Seoul.
A 67-member delegation, including 50 athletes, arrived barely in time for the opening of the 1948 London Games after a three-week journey by train and ship through nine countries.
The exhausting trip never enfeebled the South Korean athletes’ enthusiasm to make their newly independent nation known. A weightlifter and a boxer each won bronze, bringing the country its first Olympic medals.
But some of South Korea’s first Olympians were overwhelmed by physical exhaustion. A marathoner gave up the race after leading the first 30 km. The soccer team suffered a 12-0 defeat to Sweden after winning a surprise 5-3 victory against Mexico in their first Olympic match.
In the 64 years since then, South Korea has become a sports powerhouse in parallel with its successful industrialization and democratization.
The country, which had to wait until the 1976 Montreal Games for its first Olympic gold, which came in wrestling, has since reaped 91 gold medals including those won at the Winter Olympics. It hosted the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul and won the right to stage the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province.
The 374-member South Korean delegation to the 2012 Olympics, including 245 athletes to compete in 22 of its 26 sports, arrived in London well ahead of the opening of the Games to prepare for the competition.
South Korea is aiming to win at least 10 golds to finish in the top 10 in the medal standings, a goal that is expected to be achieved without much difficulty. The country has ranked in the top 10 in six of the past seven Summer Games.
Like the rest of the world, many South Koreans might want to distract themselves, if even for a brief moment, from economic difficulties they face by cheering for their Olympians, including swimmer Park Tae-hwan and weightlifter Jang Mi-ran, who are trying to defend their Olympic titles.
Among the confrontations to rivet the eyes of worldwide audiences are Usain Bolt attempting to fend off Jamaican compatriot Yohan Blake in the 100-meter sprint and Ryan Lochte’s bid to outperform fellow American Michael Phelps in the 200-meter backstroke.
We hope that South Korean athletes reap excellent results to reward the whole-hearted efforts they have made over the past years.
What we want to see most, however, is more South Korean athletes embodying the Olympic spirit of sacrificing the self and practicing self-control in the bid for perfection regardless of the color of their medals.
The 2012 London Olympics is set to be remembered for marking the first time in history that women represent every country with a team in the Games as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei sent female competitors.
Like the 1948 Olympics, which brought together countries that had fought each other in World War II, the 2012 Olympics is joined by countries locked in crises and some newly independent nations.
We hope the return of Olympics to London will serve again to fulfill what Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Games, regarded as its goal ― “increasing friendly understanding among nations.”
