Park Sung-hyun (archer) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Park Sung-hyun

Personal information
Born	(1983-01-01) 1 January 1983 (age 42) Incheon, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea
Height	172cm
Sport
Sport	Archery
Event(s)	Recurve archery
Medal record Women's recurve archery Representing  South Korea Olympic Games Gold 2004 Athens Individual Gold 2004 Athens Team Gold 2008 Beijing Team Silver 2008 Beijing Individual World Championships Gold 2001 Beijing Individual Gold 2003 New York City Team Gold 2005 Madrid Team Gold 2007 Leipzig Team Silver 2003 New York City Individual Silver 2007 Leipzig Individual Bronze 2001 Beijing Team Bronze 2005 Madrid Individual World Cup Final Silver 2008 Lausanne Individual Asian Games Gold 2002 Busan Team Gold 2006 Doha Individual Gold 2006 Doha Team Asian Championships Gold 2005 New Delhi Individual Silver 2005 New Delhi Team Summer Universiade Gold 2003 Daegu Team Gold 2003 Daegu Individual

Park Sung-hyun (Hangul: 박성현; Hanja: 朴成賢; born 1 January 1983) is a famous archer from South Korea. She competed in two Olympic Games and won three gold medals. Park started her international archery career in 2001. She won the women's recurve title at the 2001 World Archery Championships that year.

Her first Olympics was the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. There, she won gold medals in both the individual and team events for women. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, she won two more medals. She earned her third Olympic gold in the women's team event. She also won a silver medal in the women's individual event.

Park achieved great success in many international competitions. She was the first South Korean archer to win gold medals at the Olympics, World Archery Championships, Asian Games, and Asian Championships. The World Archery Federation called her the greatest Olympic archer of the 21st century in 2016. They also named her the third greatest archer of all time.

About Park Sung-hyun

Park was born on January 1, 1983, in Incheon, South Korea. In December 2008, she married Park Kyung-mo, who is also an archer and an Olympic gold medalist. They decided to announce their marriage after the 2008 Olympics. This was to avoid distracting the national team during the games. In 2008, Park lived in Gunsan in western South Korea. She has three daughters.

Park Sung-hyun's Archery Career

Olympic Achievements

2004 Athens Olympics

Park started the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens by setting a new world record. She scored 682 points in the first 72-arrow ranking round. This score was higher than the previous record of 679 points. However, this score did not count as an Olympic record. The ranking round happened before the official opening ceremony.

With her teammates Lee Sung-jin and Yun Mi-jin, she also set a new world record for the women's team event. They scored a total of 2,030 points over 216 arrows. This score also did not count as an Olympic record for the same reason.

Park and Lee Sung-jin both reached the final of the women's individual competition. Park won the gold medal by defeating her teammate 110–108. This was South Korea's sixth gold medal in this event. Two days later, Park won her second gold medal. She, Lee, and Yun beat China by just one point in the women's team event final. This secured South Korea's fifth gold medal in a row for this event. Park was the last shooter for her team. She needed to score ten points on the final arrow to win the match, and she did!

2008 Beijing Olympics

The Olympic Green Archery Field in Beijing, where Park was defeated by Zhang Juanjuan in the women's individual final at the 2008 Olympics

Before the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, many expected Park to win her Olympic titles again. She and her teammate Yun Ok-hee were favorites for the women's individual gold. The South Korean team was also expected to win their sixth straight women's team title.

Park scored 673 points in the ranking round for the women's individual event. She finished first and matched the Olympic record set in 1996. Park, Yun, and Joo Hyun-jung also set a new Olympic record for the women's team event with 2,004 points. The team then defeated Italy, France, and China. This led to their sixth Olympic title in a row for the women's team competition.

Park also reached her second Olympic women's individual final. She faced Zhang Juanjuan from China. Zhang had eliminated Park's teammates earlier. This was the third time Park and Zhang met in an Olympic final. Zhang defeated Park by one point in a very close match. Zhang became the first archer from outside South Korea to win the women's individual title in 24 years.

After the match, Park said she was disappointed about not keeping South Korea's winning streak. However, she felt her silver medal would motivate her to seek more gold medals. She also thought her loss might reduce the pressure on Korean archers in future competitions. In 2016, Park said she "was maybe too greedy about getting the gold medal." She felt she "ended up not being careful enough with [her] actions."

World Championships Success

Park competed in the World Archery Championships every two years from 2001 to 2007. She won a medal in all four of her appearances. At 18, she became the women's recurve world champion in 2001. In 2003 in New York City, she and her teammates Yun Mi-jin and Lee Hyun-jung did very well. Park lost to Yun in the final, earning a silver medal.

In 2005 in Madrid, Park joined Lee Sung-jin and Lee Tuk-young. The South Korean team was very strong, winning all four recurve gold medals. Park, Lee, and Lee won the women's team title against Ukraine. Park won a bronze medal in the individual event after losing to Lee Sung-jin. At the 2007 in Leipzig, Park helped South Korea win their third straight women's team title.

Asian Games Victories

Park competed at the 2002 Asian Games and won a gold medal in the team event. At the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Park won two gold medals. Her first was in the women's individual event, where she beat her teammate Yun Ok-hee. Her second gold medal was in the women's team event. She, Yun, and Yun Mi-jin defeated China. They also set a new Asian Games record for a 24-arrow match. Park later said she felt more satisfied winning the team event. She was happy the tournament was over because of the pressure on the South Korean team.

Amazing Archery Records

At the 2004 Summer Olympics, Park set a new world record. She scored 682 points in the women's 72-arrow round. This record stood for almost eleven years. In July 2015, her teammate Ki Bo-bae scored 686 points, breaking Park's record. At the 2008 Olympics, Park scored an Olympic record of 115 points in a 12-arrow match. Zhang Juanjuan matched this score hours later.

Park was the first recurve archer to score over 1,400 points in a 144-arrow round. She achieved 1,405 points in October 2004. For nearly fifteen years, she was the only archer to do this. In July 2019, Ryoo Su Jung from South Korea scored 1,400 points at a national tournament.

See also

• List of South Korean archers