(Olympics) S. Korea projected to win 9 gold medals, finish 10th in Paris

PARIS, July 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will win nine gold medals and rank 10th in the medal table at the Paris Olympics, a U.S. sports data analysis firm projected Tuesday.

The latest version of the Virtual Medal Table by Gracenote also had South Korea winning four silver and 13 bronze medals.

In its June projections, Gracenote said South Korea would win eight gold, five silver and 16 bronze medals.

The stated goal by the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee is to win five gold medals and finish around 15th in the medal race.

Gracenote said three of the nine South Korean gold medals will come from archery -- in the men's, women's and mixed team events.

The company also predicted two team gold medals for South Korea in fencing -- in the men's sabre and the women's epee events.

Individually, Gracenote predicted gold medals from An Se-young in women's singles in badminton, Lee Do-hyun in men's sport climbing, Seo Geon-woo in men's taekwondo and Park Hye-jeong in women's weightlifting.

Gracenote's projected silver medalists were: Lee So-hee and Baek Hana in women's doubles in badminton, Hwang Sun-woo in the men's 200-meter freestyle swimming, Lee Da-bin in women's taekwondo and Kim Su-hyeon in women's weightlifting.

The data company listed athletes in archery, badminton, fencing, artistic gymnastics, judo, modern pentathlon, table tennis and taekwondo as possible bronze medalists.

Among those missing from the list were men's high jumper Woo Sang-hyeok, one of two flag bearers for South Korea at the opening ceremony who will also carry big medal hopes for the country, and LPGA golfer Ko Jin-young, former world No. 1 taking her second crack at her first Olympic medal.

Swimmer Kim Woo-min, the reigning world champion in the men's 400m freestyle, also didn't make it to Gracenote's list.

For the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Gracenote predicted South Korea would win seven gold, nine silver and four bronze medals. The country finished with six gold, four silver and 10 bronze medals.

Gracenote had the U.S. and China finish first and second with 39 gold and 34 gold medals, respectively. The host country France was projected to win 27 gold medals to finish third.

jeeho@yna.co.kr
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