Versailles’ ‘multi-medal’ breaks new history…modern pentathlon begins 8 days of competition
The modern pentathlon, which is expected to fuel the Korean team’s last-minute medal race at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, kicks off on Monday.
The modern pentathlon, which requires one athlete to compete in fencing, swimming, horseback riding, and laser run (athletics plus shooting), will kick off the Paris Games schedule on Aug. 8 at the North Paris Arena in Paris, France.
The men’s semifinals will take place on the 9th, followed by the men’s final and women’s semifinals on the 10th, and the women’s final on the 11th, the closing day of the Games.
South Korea, who won bronze in the men’s pentathlon three years ago at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games when Jeon Woong-tae (Gwangju Metropolitan Government) won his first medal since competing in the event since 1964, will look to make history in Paris with a gold medal and a multi-medal performance.
South Korea’s first Olympic medalist, Jeon Woong-tae, will compete in the men’s event alongside Seo Chang-wan (National Armed Forces Athletic Team), while Seong Seung-min (Korea Gymnastics Federation) and Kim Sun-woo (Gyeonggi Provincial Office) will compete in the women’s event.
The duo raised Olympic hopes at the World Championships in June when they combined for Korea’s best-ever finish with four gold, two silver and one bronze medal.
In particular, Seong Seung-min, born in 2003, became the first Korean woman to win an individual title, while Jeon Woong-tae won his second individual bronze medal in five years, raising hopes for a second consecutive Olympics.
Seo Chang-wan also won the individual title at the second World Cup event of the season in April, and Kim Sun-woo was runner-up at the first event in March, so all four players have the world-class ability to challenge for an Olympic medal.
The pentathlon team arrived in France on March 29 and spent the first three days of this month at the Team Korea Paris Platform, a pre-camp organized by the Korea Sports Federation in Fontainebleau, just outside Paris, to acclimatize to the local conditions, and are now continuing their final preparations at the athletes’ village and nearby training facilities.
There are no team or relay events in the Olympic modern pentathlon, only individual events for men and women, so Jeon Woong-tae, Seo Chang-wan, Sung Seung-min and Kim Sun-woo are competing in good faith, but they have high hopes of standing on the podium together.
In the modern pentathlon, swimming will compete in a 200-meter race, fencing in epee, and equestrian in show jumping. In the final laser run, which combines athletics and shooting, athletes will run 3,200 meters with different start times based on their performance in the previous events.
It will be important to dominate the first day’s fencing ranking rounds, where all 36 men and women will compete once each.
The modern pentathlon is said to have been modeled by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games, after a young French mounted officer in the 19th century. The fact that Baron Coubertin was French means that France is considered to be the “mother country” of modern pentathlon.
In addition, all competitions except the ranking rounds will be held at the Palace of Versailles, a world-famous attraction representing France. 사설 토토사이트