No rest for weary: Korean Olympians begin training in Rio

There was no rest for the weary South Korean Olympians in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, as they began training for the upcoming Summer Games less than 24 hours after landing in the Brazilian city.

With the main contingent of the delegation in Rio, there are now 79 athletes in eight sports at the athletes' village. And they tried to beat jet lag by heading straight to practice.

Six national team swimmers got their first look at the Olympic Aquatics Centre, the venue for all of their races during the Aug. 5-21 Olympics. Only Park Tae-hwan and An Se-hyeon, who are training on their own in the United States, were missing in Rio.

Coach Park Seong-won said her athletes couldn't afford to take too much time off.

"We already rested a day and a half just getting to Rio," she said. "So we had our regular practice in the morning."

Park said the key is to be acclimatized to the late starting times during the Olympics. The heats will begin around 1 p.m., while the finals, if the swimmers make it that far, are scheduled for around 10 p.m. That's about three hours later than a typical international competition, but they've been set to reach the American audience in prime time.

In fencing, Heo Jun in men's foil is the lone South Korean in Rio, and he got in some weight training in on Thursday. He will be joined by his 16 teammates over the next two days.

The women's handball team began its practice in the afternoon. Head coach Lim Young-chul said he won't be running his players through any hard drills in the lead-up to the first group match against Russia on Aug. 6.

Shooter Jin Jong-oh got in some work in the 50m pistol at the Olympic Shooting Centre. He'll be gunning for his third straight Olympic gold in that event. He and the rest of the team have been in Rio since Sunday. (Yonhap)