Day three of competitions in Rio de Janeiro... and Team Korea is looking to basket more medals
from various events today.
Our Olympics correspondent Kwon Jang-ho joins me live with all the bits and pieces of Rio
2016.
Jangho, another exciting day athletes are waking up to in Rio... but let's first talk
about the first two days of competitions for Team Korea.
Quite a few shiny gold, silver, and bronze it's managed to collect.
Absolutely, Connyoung.
And, the gold - not just any gold, but the eighth successive gold medal from Korean's
women archers.
It's an Olympic record that stretches back 28 years to the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, and
Korea's women archers have been simply unrivalled.
Including the individual events, there have been 15 gold medals up for grabs so far, and
the Korean women have taken 14 of them.
The team of Chang Hye-jin, Choi Mi-sun and Ki Bo-bae carried on this impressive legacy
with strong performances on Sunday.
But despite dispatching their rivals in what seemed like comfortable fashion, the Korean
archers showed that they had been feeling the weight of extremely high expectations...
with tears of joy and relief coming after the win.
Now attention turns to the individual events, and they're not about to rest on their laurels
as Team Korea looks to scoop all four-out-of-the-four gold medals in archery.
The remarkable dominance of Korean archers have got many asking why?
Why is Korea so exceptional in archery?
There's no one reason, and if you ask the athletes themselves, they will simply say
it's lots and lots of hard work.
Then there's the cyclical pattern of Olympic success bringing more interest in the sport,
which produces more archers, which in turn brings further Olympic success.
And the training has really been perfected.
They don't just do the physical but mental training as well, such as noise training,
where they go to a baseball stadium and shoot arrows in front of loud, noisy crowds to improve
their focus.
It's this combination of factors that leads Korea archers to perform at the highest levels.
Just on a sidenote - nine other national archery teams competing at the Rio Olympics are led
by Korean coaches.
I've heard some even say Korean has become the official language of the archery range
in Rio.
Well, best of luck to them.
Now, what about other highlights from the second day of competitions in Rio.
Sure.
First up is the judo where world number-one, Korea's An Ba-ul won silver.
But it was actually a disappointment as he lost the gold to Italy's Fabio Basile, who
is only ranked 26th in the world.
An carelessly allowed himself to be thrown for a match-winning ippon in 84 seconds, and
An couldn't believe he had let the gold slip through his fingers.
It was the opposite story for Yoon Jin-hee, who just managed to sneak into third place,
after the Chinese competitor Li Yajun unexpectedly failed in her lift.
It's an especially sweet achievement for Yoon as she came back to the sports two years ago
after retiring in 2012.
And finally, the Korean men's football team missed out on automatically qualifying for
the quaterfinals after giving away a late lead in extra time to Germany to end the match
three-all.
Korea will now have to win or draw against Mexico in the final group game on Wednesday
to progress.
But, a handful of old records were broken and new world records were set in the swimming
pool.
And, yes, Michael Phelps.
He got his first gold with the U.S. swim team in the Men's 100m freestyle relay.
That's his 19th gold medal, 23 medals overall, and he's looking to add three more by the
end of this week.
And then, he could add even more, as incredibly there is suggestion he might be back for the
2020 Tokyo Olympics.
But just in case that isn't the case I would suggest watching his races here in Rio in
case they are the last ones left.
Now, for what's ahead on day three of competitions...
For Team Korea all eyes will be on Judo again, as world number-one for the men's 73-kilo
weight class, An Chang-lim, and world number-two in the women's 57-kilo weight class, Kim Jan-di,
aim for Korea's first gold in Judo at this Olympics.
In fencing there are high hopes for Kim Ji-yeon to get on the podium for the women's sabre
event as well.
Elsewhere there are the first ever finals of the women's rugby sevens, as well as the
first gold event in gymnastics.
There will also be continued medal events in the swimming, shooting and diving among
others.
Looking at the medal tables...
Korea is currently in fifth with 2 golds, 2 silvers and a bronze, while the U.S. are
top, courtesy of 8 medals from the swimming.