Soccer Eliminated’ Korea, Less than 200 Players Participate in Summer Olympics for the First Time in 48 Years

Team ball games are sluggish… Only women’s handball won tickets to the finals.

As Korean soccer failed to advance to the finals of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the number of players participating in the Summer Olympics in Korea fell below 200 for the first time in 48 years since the 1976 Montreal Games.

The Korean men’s soccer team, led by coach Hwang Seon-hong, drew 2-2 with Indonesia in overtime in the quarterfinals of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Asian Cup held in Doha, Qatar on the 26th (Korean time).

They lost 10-11 in the shootout. 실시간 바카라사이트

Korean soccer, which had to reach the semifinals to advance to the finals of this year’s Paris Olympics, ended its streak of advancing to the Olympics in the 9th inning, which started with the 1988 Seoul Games.

The Korea sent 50 athletes to the 1976 Montreal Olympics, where wrestler Yang Jeong-mo won its first ever gold medal, and 210 athletes participated in the 1984 Los Angeles Games, emerging as a full-fledged sports powerhouse.

Korea, which did not participate in the 1980 Moscow Olympics due to the international situation at the time, achieved the feat of ranking 10th overall with six gold medals in LA in 1984.

Since then, Korea has always sent more than 200 athletes to the Summer Olympics.

In the 1988 Seoul Games, taking advantage of being the host country, a whopping 477 athletes participated, and in the 1996 Atlanta Games, there were over 300.

However, it appears that the 200-person mark will fall at this year’s Paris Olympics.

The Korea Sports Council expected a maximum of 170 to 180 players to participate even before the men’s soccer preliminaries, a team ball sport, were held, but with the men’s soccer game being eliminated, the size of the team of less than 200 players is virtually confirmed.

In the previous competition, Tokyo in 2021, 232 players participated, and in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, 204 players participated.

In a larger sense, the reason may be the weakening of the base of elite sports due to population decline, but if you look at the immediate results, the slump in team ball sports, which have a large number of participating players, was a direct hit.

Team ball sports held at the Paris Olympics include soccer, basketball, volleyball, hockey, handball, rugby, and water polo.

Among these, women’s handball is the only one in which Korea won a ticket to the finals.

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