▲ From left to right: South Korean archery head coach Hong Seung-jin, archers Oh Jin-hyek, Kim Woo-jin and Kim Je-deok pose with the national flag, Taegeukgi, after winning the men's team gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics at Yumenoshima Park Archery Field in Tokyo on July 26, 2021. (Yonhap)

(Olympics) archer-injury

(Olympics) Bum shoulder or not, veteran archer picks up 2nd career Olympic gold

By Yoo Jee-ho

TOKYO, July 26 (Yonhap) -- It was almost nine years ago to date that South Korean archer Oh Jin-hyek won his first Olympic gold medal in London, in the men's individual event.

His career then went through some usual ebbs and flows, and it didn't come as a huge surprise that Oh didn't make the Olympic team in 2016. With a rich reserve of archery talent in the country making Olympic trials, few qualify for back-to-back Olympics.

But then Oh did something even more unthinkable: he returned to the Olympics in Tokyo. And because the Tokyo Olympics got pushed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a nine-year gap, instead of eight, between Oh's Olympic appearances.

Less than a month shy of his 40th birthday, Oh collected his second career gold in the men's team event Monday, helping South Korea beat Chinese Taipei in a dominant performance. He's now the oldest male archery champion in Olympic history.

It wasn't just Father Time Oh battled. He has been dealing with right shoulder issues for years. He competed through pain during that 2012 Olympic gold medal run, and problems have worsened over the past four years. Of the four muscles that make up the rotator cuff, three of them were torn. The other was barely hanging by a thread.

But if Oh was hurting on Monday, he clearly didn't look like an injured athlete. In the final, Oh hit the 10 with five of his six arrows.

Needing only a 9 to clinch the win with his final shot, Kim hit the center of the target anyway to set off a celebration

Before this year, only four South Korean men had won two gold medals in their Olympic careers. On Monday alone, Oh and his two teammates, Kim Je-deok and Kim Woo-jin, joined that list.

Kim Je-deok won the mixed team title Saturday. Kim Woo-jin had the 2016 team gold medal to his credit.

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