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They did not lose a single set on their way to two gold medals. South Korea’s men’s and women’s archery teams showed off their athletic prowess as they won their events in this year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

This was the eighth consecutive victory in the Olympic team events for South Korea’s female archers. Systematic training backed by scientific analysis is thought to be the driving force behind the series of perfect victories by South Korea’s archers, who did not give up a single set.

On Aug. 8, one day after the South Korean men’s archery team snagged its first team gold medal in eight years, a strong wind was blowing throughout Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Wind was gusting aimlessly through the Sambodromo archery range at the speed of one meter a second, while thick storm clouds lowered above. Christ the Redeemer, the statue that is emblematic of Rio, had been clearly visible from the range the previous day, but on this day it was wreathed in fog.

Since archery is an event that is greatly affected by subtle changes in the speed of the wind, temperature and humidity, the weather was disconcerting for the global dream team of Ki Bo-bae (28, Gwangju City Hall), Choi Mi-sun (20, Kwangju Women’s University) and Chang Hye-jin (29, LH).

At the outset of the first set of the quarterfinals with Japan on Monday, the South Korean women’s archery team faltered, hitting eight points on two shots.

But during the first set of the semifinals against Taiwan, the South Korean archers hit 10 points with all six shots, showing that they had completely adapted to the wind. During the finals with Russia, they also nailed 10 points on five out of six shots.

South Korean archers Ki Bo-bae

Russia, on the other hand, dropped from the running early on after only scoring 6 points on one shot.

Since the wind is an external factor that applies the same to all contestants, how did the South Korean team alone manage to stay relatively unaffected?

“I actually think the strong wind was in our favor,” said Yang Chang-hun, coach of the women’s archery team, after the game. “When the wind blows, your sense of direction, which lets you see the big picture, is more important than precision. We also dedicated a lot of our practice time to that.”

“It was helpful that we had been in contests both in South Korea and overseas where there was a strong wind,” Ki Bo-bae said.

South Korea’s archery team practiced at an archery range in the Taereung athletes’ village that was a close replica of the actual range in Rio.

The Rio archery range was set up where the Rio Carnival is held each year. The floor is not a lawn, but cement, and it is not level either. For that reason, the archers fire their arrows from a platform raised atop the cement that the parade walks along during Carnival. Since this could play tricks on the athletes’ eyes, a similar environment was created at Taereung for the archery team to practice at.

The electronic scoreboard and the signals were also designed to look identical to the ones at the actual archery range. So that the archers could adjust to the noise of the crowd and nighttime lighting, they practiced at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, where professional baseball games are played. To prepare for the contingency of a strong wind, they also deliberately shot arrows on windy and rainy days.

On top of this, the athletes‘ brain waves were measured as they watched videos that depicted events at the archery range, and they were given psychological treatment to help them achieve peace of mind.

Jang Yeong-sul, general director of the Korea Archery Association, offered his thoughts about the double victory by South Korea’s male and female archery teams. “Since the 2004 Athens Olympics, our archers have been training in conditions that are identical to the archery range in the actual Olympics, and that is getting results,” Jang said.

“We measure the sound of cheering and even the decibel level of camera shutters and apply this to the practice range. Leading up to the London games, we expected a lot of rainstorms and incorporated that into our training, and that also helped us in this year‘s games.”

The athletes responded to this support by throwing themselves into a grueling training regimen.

“From the early morning until 10 at night, I spent my whole day training,” said Ki. “Doing training in special locations like baseball fields in order to adjust to the noise helped me stay relaxed while I was shooting arrows in Rio.”

On Aug. 11, South Korea’s archers will enter the men’s and women’s individual events. If they keep up their streak, the South Korean team could even sweep all the events in both the men’s and women’s categories, pundits say, which would be a first in the history of the Olympics.

By Kwon Seung-rok, staff reporter in Rio de Janeiro

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