(Olympics) S. Korea ties own record with 13th gold thanks to shock taekwondo title

With a surprise taekwondo title on Thursday, South Korea tied its Summer Games record with 13 gold medals.

Kim Yu-jin was crowned the new Olympic champion in the women’s -57-kilogram event Thursday, after beating Nahid Kiani of Iran 2-0 (5-1, 9-0). En route to the top of the podium, Kim, world No. 24, knocked off four of the world’s top five athletes in her weight division, including No. 1 from China, Luo Zongshi, in the semifinals and then No. 2 Kiani in the gold medal match.

This was South Korea’s second taekwondo gold medal in as many days.

With 13 gold medals, South Korea has equaled the record set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and matched four years later in London. There are three days of competition left in Paris.

Also on Thursday, the South Korean women’s table tennis team lost to China in the semifinals by 3-0, dropping one doubles and two singles matches in a row. The trio of Shin Yu-bin, Jeon Ji-hee and Lee Eun-hye will face Germany in the bronze medal match on Saturday.

Sport climber Seo Chae-hyun squeezed into the final in the women’s combined event on Thursday. She scored 72.1 points in the lead semifinal, and combined with 44.2 points from the bouldering semifinal Tuesday, Seo finished eighth overall among 20 climbers with 116.3 points. She secured the last ticket to Saturday’s final by just eight-tenths of a point over Miho Nonaka of Japan.

Diver Woo Haram competed in his second straight final in the men’s 3m springboard, but finished in 11th place among the dozen finalists with 374.15 points. Woo had finished fourth at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and was trying to improve on that and become the first South Korean diver to win an Olympic medal.

The modern pentathlon competition began Thursday with the men’s and women’s fencing rankings rounds. Jun Woong-tae, the 2021 men’s bronze medalist, finished in fourth place after going 22-13 to earn 235 points.

On the women’s side, the 2024 world champion Seong Seung-min ranked eighth with 225 points on a 20-15 record.