S. Korean-born coaches help foreign nations beat native country

LONDON -- In the men's team archery event at the London Olympics, Italy edged the U.S. by one point, 219-218, thanks to a perfect 10 by the final shooter, Michele Frangilli.

Although the South Koreans had lost to the Americans and were relegated to the bronze medal match against Mexico, there was still a very distinct Korean flavor among the final four.

The top four nations are all coached by South Korean-born men.

Oh Seon-tek heads the South Korean men's team, and that's really no surprise.

Lee Ki-sik, who guided South Koreans to eight Olympic titles, has been at the helm of the U.S. team since 2006. That was after he helped Australian Simon Fairweather win gold before home crowds at the 2000 Sydney Games. Suk Dong-eun coached the Italians to their first archery gold Sunday, four years after they came up short against the South Koreans. Suk is the son of the late Suk Bong-geun, the former senior official with the Korea Archery Association, who is largely credited with introducing modern archery to Korea in the 1950s.

Mexico, coached by Lee Woong, held the ground against South Korea in the bronze medal match before falling 224-219. If not for Juan Rene Serrano's disastrous 5 in the first end, the Mexicans would have been more competitive.

All in all, 11 nations had a combined 14 South Korean natives as their head coaches or assistants. The countries also include Spain, Brazil, Malaysia, Colombia and Egypt.

Not all of those countries are exactly medal contenders, but most are making significant strides. Under the tutelage of Lee Jae-hyung, Malaysia earned a spot in the team competition for the first time. The Philippines, coached by Jung Jae-heon, will be represented in both the men's and women's individual events for the first time.

Lee Ki-sik is perhaps the highest-profile Korean-born coach overseas. His instructional book, titled "Total Archery," has been translated into eight languages, and he even runs the Web site "KSL International Archery" to offer tips, training guides and the latest archery news. Lee also organizes coaching camps and seminars across the U.S.

After winning their team silver, American archers gave credit

to their coach for their recent run of success. "Coach Lee came in and totally restructured what Team USA did," said Brady Ellison, the world's No. 1-ranked male archer. "It took us a while to get our heads around what he was doing, but in the last three and four years all the people on this team have been his students."

Jacob Wukie, his teammate, added Lee "has had a big effect on our development, and invested a lot of time in developing our technique."

The Korean-native coaches say in their heart of hearts, they still want South Korea to do well.

"It's important that our archers do well, but South Korea has to keep doing what it's been doing, too," said Jung, the coach for the Philippines. "Thanks to South Korea's status (as a global archery power), coaches like myself can hold our heads up high and keep working hard."

The promulgation of South Korean-style coaching has raised the profile of South Korean archery as a whole, but it's also had a different type of effect. Those countries are now beating the Koreans at their own game in the Olympics and other international events at an increasing frequency.

Lee Ki-sik, the U.S. team coach, said South Korea should use this parity as a source of motivation.

"It's good to see so many Korean coaches in the world of archery today," he said. "When you can encourage those leaders to try to beat South Korea, then it will also push South Korea to get better."

He said South Korean coaches all maintain good friendships.

"We all get on very well," Lee said. "I am happy that (the other semifinalists) have all done well. Actually, we were thinking about all putting our arms around each other, but we couldn't, as we were all competing." 

(Yonhap News)