now for south current archers winning olympic gold medals it feels almost like a given
they have claimed 23 of the 34 golds awarded in the sport since 1984.
now if you count the 2020 tokyo olympic games this year it's 27 of the 39 golds up for grabs
and it's team korea once again that swept the gold medals in the event except for one this year in
fact it's getting to the games that's tough given the competitive nature in the nation anzan for
instance successfully navigated the crucible of south korea's national team selection tournament
which gathers the country's top 200 archers to vie for six tickets for three men and three women
to the world's biggest sporting event with no regard for rankings or past performances
the 20 year old ended up rewriting olympic history in the sport sweeping all three goals up for grabs
the mixed event women's team and individual so what makes korean archer so invincible
it's a topic of our news in depth with tahi kwak associate professor and director of center for
sport marketing research at the university of michigan he joins us live from ann arbor professor
it's good to have you with us thank you for having me so um i'm gonna get right to it what is the
secret behind south korea's archery success i mean do koreans have some kind of an advantage in their
physique or mental state that make them more apt for this particular sport
that's a question everybody's curious about to answer your first question i find transparency
sports science as a key success factors behind korea's dominance in archery transparency if you
look at how the korean archery association operates in terms of talent development and
training it is very straightforward whoever can consistently shoot high scores over and over again
we'll get the spot we might or might not see anzan next olympic even though she won three gold medals
this year so no preference is given for those who won medals or experienced second is sport science
that i like to mention they believe in improving performance at all levels from equipments training
methods to simulating actual competitions since 1984 as you mentioned over 35 years of dominance
there is ample evidence of what worked and what didn't so performance improvement backed
by evidence-based approach is something that cannot be easily copied or emulated
uh and to answer your second question about the uh the if koreans have upper hand in physical traits
to become a better archer there are some myths that koreans are good at archery because they're
dexterous or use chopsticks but i'm not sure if there is a scientific research that actually
proved that's the case we are talking about very few selected individuals chosen and trained to
be the world best archer from very sophisticated and systematic training so i think it is a myth
that is hard to be proven right i mean i can use chopsticks but i can't even hold up an
you know a bow and an arrow so um i don't know about that now once again we were able to witness
korean's extraordinary performance with anzan's historic three goals finish seventeen-year-old
kim jadak's two goals and their robin hood shot korean archers remained unbelievably calm
throughout their matches they were even evidenced by their heart rates compared to their rivals how
do archers maintain their pace of peace of mind i mean is there a special training for that as well
i wish i had that strong mentality at home keeping peace of my mind when kids running
around and don't dog barking at you i know it was just amazing to see how police korean archers were
i don't know how they track biometric data but if those heart rates are accurate then
then anzan and jeduc and all the other current archers are born to be an archer
but we have to remember that those made to the korean national team already have gone through
grueling qualifying rounds so those archers we see in the television are the ones who possess
that strong mental ability to begin with so i like to also point out that there are teams of sports
psychologists physiologists and other sports scientists who work very closely with those
athletes to help them cope with coping stress under the pressure now um the korean national
team of course is famous in the archery world for the depth and detail of its preparations
how are their preparations different from that of other national teams i mean what sets them apart
so korean archery association they support uh the team by creating a very similar training sites
that are they are exactly similar from what they will be complete at the olympic values
so they uh they provide similar crowd noise wind level and even the venue layout how the
the the actual competition site will will look like they also sell like trading sites that have
similar climate for the tokyo olympics this year they chose uh the training site that have a very
similar weather so if you think about archery archery is an outdoor sport so creating a very
similar environment to the competition site is critical but they all cost money
and and korean archery team is lucky to have a long time sponsor hyundai motors
you know archery is no football or basketball in fact it isn't a popular sport in general but like
you said the kind of financial and institutional support that the korean archery association has
been giving has been outstanding uh they've been creating a training environment conducive
to success in the olympics literally like you said how important is this kind of sponsorship
it's a very good question uh corporate sponsorship is one of key revenue sources
for any sport organization either professional or amateur support organization uh corporate
sponsorship is vital uh to provide those means to uh success succeed in those competitions
hyundai motors involved in korean archery is far greater than just writing off a big check
to the organization what do i mean by this is that hyundai motors is also using their r d technology
using their car manufacturing to further help the team perform at its best for instance they
developed high precision shooting machines to select best arrows with less errors or defects
certainly improves more consistency this is just one example of many high-level technologies that
they are applying to help the team's performance so i would say hyundai's involvement is much
bigger than just financially supporting the organization they're showing how authentic
partnership can be done so the both parties can grow together so the hyundai motor sponsorship
of korean archery association is a great example of a win-win sponsorship now um as we talked about
the success of south korean archery has been attributed to its stringent application of
transparency and fairness in national team selection and internal competition well it
seems quite normal to me that this should be the case in every sport but apparently that isn't the
case i mean is it difficult to achieve this in sport management in general like you said that's
a great question i do have to create a korean archery association's management of their you know
how they recruit their talent and training and the level of transparency that they have seemingly you
know that's just uh very common but but why why don't we see this in in other sports i i think
it all comes down to uh the leadership that that who has the power and the right to make the right
decision uh and also make that change happen i think uh this probably is just not in sport um
uh the but the korean archery association the korean team is showing how it can be done
and i think the korean archery association is setting a very good example for not just for
other sports associations but also to the society at large all right tahi kwaka professor of sports
management at the university of michigan for us tonight thank you for your insights thank you