The Rising Tiger: Korea

The Rising Tiger: Korea

The sudden explosion of interest in sports in Korea has been closely linked to the economic boom

in industry, beginning about the middle of the century. The impressive staging of the 1988 Olympics in

Seoul, stands witness to this fact.

In the past few years there has been a tremendous emphasis on the advancement of sports policies

and rules, along with the construction of many new sport facilities. As a result, sports are now an almost

daily event for many residents, and spectator sports are becoming increasingly more popular.

Korea’s athletic history shows an impressive record of achievement in many international events

in recent years. The most dramatic achievements can be seen in the sports of soccer(football), wrestling,

boxing, and Judo. A Korean runner, Shon Kee-chung, won the gold medal for a marathon in the 1936

Olympics, but won the medal under the Japanese flag, due to the fact that Korea belonged to Japan at the

time. Korea flew it’s own flag for the first time in the Olympics at the 1948 London games.

Since then, Korean athletes have demonstrated their performances in many events, both at

home an abroad. They won one gold, one silver and four bronze medals at the 1976 Olympics in

Montreal to rank 19th out of over 100. In the 1982 Asian Games, Korea ranked third to The peoples

Republic of China and Japan. In the 1986 Asia Games, Korea came in second, trailing China by only one

gold medal.

At the 1984 Los An...

The Rising Tiger: Korea

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