World’s No. 1 archer overcomes self-doubt to make Olympic team

SEOUL, July 6 (Yonhap) — Even the greatest athletes can hit rough patches at some point in their careers, but for South Korean male archer Kim Woo-jin, the slump following an Olympic near miss in 2012 was especially excruciating.

Kim, who had already captured two Asian Games gold medals and two world titles by 2011, finished fourth in the qualifying for the London Games, coming up short by one spot. And in a matter of months, Kim went from a phenom who reached the world No. 1 ranking in 2011 at the age of 18 to a forgotten ex-star battling self-doubt.

Turn the clock forward to 2016: Kim has made the Olympic team for the Rio de Janeiro Games that begin next month, and he is back as the world’s top-ranked male archer.

“Four years ago, (missing the Olympic team) left a bitter taste in my mouth, and I went through a slump” said Kim, now 24. “At a domestic competition afterward, I finished 55th out of 60 archers. I really doubted whether I could make the national team again. I watched the guys on the Olympic team train so hard, and I was just feeling sorry for myself.”

In this file photo taken on April 19, 2016, South Korean archer Kim Woo-jin competes in the Olympic trials in Daejeon. (Yonhap)

Such self-pity gradually gave way to something more positive, as Kim managed to find motivation from the same group of Olympic archers, fueled by the desire to join them or even beat them.

“I started thinking I could become myself again if I put in the work,” he said. “When I tried to analyze the reasons that I missed London, I learned that I was too arrogant and too obsessed with the results. I was also unable to handle pressure.”

Kim credited his efforts to minimize mental mistakes with helping him qualify for Rio.

“Once I qualified for the Olympics (in April), I started feeling some pressure,” Kim said. “And also I felt a great sense of accomplishment. I know I haven’t won an Olympic medal yet, but I was just proud of myself for all the things I’d done to make the team.”

An Olympic medal is virtually the only thing Kim hasn’t won. He shot to fame by bagging both the individual and the team gold medal at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. The following year, Kim rose to No. 1 in the world a month before his 19th birthday, and captured the individual and the team titles at the world championships.

He shook off the disappointment from 2012 and pulled off another individual-team double at the 2015 world championships. Kim became just the second man, after Richard McKinney of the United States, to win at least two individual titles in the event’s 84-year history.

Struggling to stay out of the cellar at a domestic event is now a distant memory.

And the real work will begin. Because South Korea has dominated the modern Olympic archery competition, with 19 gold medals leading all countries, expectations of the athletes are always high.

South Korea has won three of the past four gold medals in the men’s team event but hasn’t done quite as well in the individual competition. It wasn’t until 2012 that a South Korean man won an individual gold medal, as Oh Jn-hyek ended the drought.

Oh is not on this year’s team, and Kim will be counted on to start a new Olympic streak for South Korean archery.

South Korean archer Kim Woo-jin (L) walks alongside teammates Ku Bon-chan (C) and Lee Seung-yun during their practice at the National Training Center in Seoul, in this file photo taken on April 24, 2016. (Yonhap)

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling any pressure,” Kim said. “But if I let it get to me too much, I may become tentative and hesitant. I have to find ways to relieve some of the pressure, and that will be the biggest key to the Olympics.”

If Kim’s close call four years ago taught him anything, it’s that he can’t get too caught up with results.

“I’m not thinking to myself, ‘Oh, I have to win a gold medal,’” he said. “It would just put too much pressure on me, and I wouldn’t be able to perform to the best of my abilities. I realized that during the 2012 Olympic qualification.”

The national archery talent pool is so deep, and the overall talent level so high, that making the Olympic team is considered as difficult as, if not more than, winning an Olympic medal. World rankings are thrown out the window, and Kim has already been at the wrong end of it.

It’s also telling that none of the three archers from London — Oh, Im Dong-hyun and Kim Bub-min — qualified for Rio, in an era when athletes often compete in consecutive Olympics.

And though he’s barely in his mid-20s, Kim understands he may never get another chance.

“I don’t know if I will be able to qualify for another Olympics,” he said. “But what’s important is the present, and I don’t want to come home with regrets. I’ve been given a second chance, and I want to leave it all out there on the stage.”