South Korea at the Olympics facts for kids

South Korea at the Olympics
IOC code	KOR
NOC	Korean Olympic Committee
Website	(in Korean and English)
Medals	Gold Silver Bronze Total 121 112 104 337
Summer appearances
1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020
Winter appearances
1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018
Other related appearances
Korea (2018)

The Republic of Korea (commonly known as South Korea) first participated at the Olympic Games in 1948, and has sent athletes to compete in every Summer Olympic Games since then, except for 1980 which they boycotted. South Korea has also participated in every Winter Olympic Games since 1948, except for the 1952 games.

History

The first Korean athletes to win medals did so at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, when Sohn Kee-chung and Nam Sung-yong won gold and bronze respectively in the men's marathon. However, as Korea was under Japanese rule at that time, and, since both athletes were members of the Japanese team, the IOC credits both medals to Japan.

South Korea won its first medals as an independent nation at its first appearance in 1948, and won its first gold medal in 1976. South Korean athletes have won a total of 267 medals at the Summer Games, with the most gold medals won in archery, and 70 medals at the Winter Games, a majority in short track speed skating. The nation has won more medals in this winter sport than any other nation since it was introduced to the Olympic program in 1992.

The National Olympic Committee for Korea is the Korean Olympic Committee, and was founded in 1946 and recognized in 1947.

During the 1998-2007 Sunshine Policy era, South Korea and North Korea symbolically marched as one team at the opening ceremonies of the 2000 and 2004 Olympics; but competed separately.

Hosted Games

The Republic of Korea has hosted the Games on two occasions:

Games	Host city	Dates	Nations	Participants	Events
1988 Summer Olympics	Seoul	17 September – 2 October	160	8,391	263
2018 Winter Olympics	Pyeongchang	9 – 25 February	92	2,952	102

Unsuccessful bids

Games	City	Winner of bid
2010 Winter Olympics	PyeongChang	Vancouver, Canada
2014 Winter Olympics	PyeongChang	Sochi, Russia

Medal tables

*Red border colour indicates tournament was held on home soil.

Medals by Summer Games

Games	Athletes	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	Rank
1948 London	50	0	0	2	2	32
1952 Helsinki	19	0	0	2	2	37
1956 Melbourne	35	0	1	1	2	29
1960 Rome	36	0	0	0	0	–
1964 Tokyo	154	0	2	1	3	27
1968 Mexico City	54	0	1	1	2	36
1972 Munich	42	0	1	0	1	33
1976 Montreal	50	1	1	4	6	19
1980 Moscow	did not participate
1984 Los Angeles	175	6	6	7	19	10
1988 Seoul	401	12	10	11	33	4
1992 Barcelona	226	12	5	12	29	7
1996 Atlanta	300	7	15	5	27	10
2000 Sydney	281	8	10	10	28	12
2004 Athens	264	9	12	9	30	9
2008 Beijing	267	13	11	8	32	7
2012 London	248	13	9	8	30	5
2016 Rio de Janeiro	204	9	3	9	21	8
2020 Tokyo	future event
2024 Paris
2028 Los Angeles
Total		90	87	90	267	15

Medals by Winter Games

Games	Athletes	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	Rank
1948 St. Moritz	3	0	0	0	0	–
1952 Oslo	did not participate
1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo	4	0	0	0	0	–
1960 Squaw Valley	7	0	0	0	0	–
1964 Innsbruck	7	0	0	0	0	–
1968 Grenoble	8	0	0	0	0	–
1972 Sapporo	5	0	0	0	0	–
1976 Innsbruck	3	0	0	0	0	–
1980 Lake Placid	10	0	0	0	0	–
1984 Sarajevo	15	0	0	0	0	–
1988 Calgary	28	0	0	0	0	–
1992 Albertville	23	2	1	1	4	10
1994 Lillehammer	24	4	1	1	6	6
1998 Nagano	38	3	1	2	6	9
2002 Salt Lake City	48	2	2	0	4	14
2006 Turin	41	6	3	2	11	7
2010 Vancouver	46	6	6	2	14	5
2014 Sochi	71	3	3	2	8	13
2018 Pyeongchang	122	5	8	4	17	7
2022 Beijing	Future event
2026 Milan/Cortina	Future event
Total		31	25	14	70	15

Medals by summer sport

     Leading in that sport

Sport	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Archery	23	9	7	39
Taekwondo	12	2	5	19
Judo	11	16	16	43
Wrestling	11	11	14	36
Shooting	7	8	1	16
Badminton	6	7	6	19
Fencing	4	2	5	11
Boxing	3	7	10	20
Weightlifting	3	6	6	15
Table tennis	3	3	12	18
Handball	2	4	1	7
Gymnastics	1	4	4	9
Swimming	1	3	0	4
Athletics	1	1	0	2
Baseball	1	0	1	2
Golf	1	0	0	1
Field hockey	0	3	0	3
Basketball	0	1	0	1
Football	0	0	1	1
Volleyball	0	0	1	1
Totals (20 sports)	90	87	90	267

Medals by winter sport

     Leading in that sport

Sport	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Short track speed skating	24	13	11	48
Speed skating	5	8	3	16
Figure skating	1	1	0	2
Skeleton	1	0	0	1
Bobsleigh	0	1	0	1
Curling	0	1	0	1
Snowboarding	0	1	0	1
Totals (7 sports)	31	25	14	70

Most successful Olympians

A South Korean volunteer at the Games of the XXIV Olympiad.

Athlete	Sport	Type	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Jin Jong-oh	Shooting	Summer	2004, 2008, 2012, 2016	4	2	0	6
Kim Soo-Nyung	Archery	Summer	1988, 1992, 2000	4	1	1	6
Chun Lee-Kyung	Short track speed skating	Winter	1992, 1994, 1998	4	0	1	5
Park Sung-hyun	Archery	Summer	2004, 2008	3	1	0	4
Ahn Hyun-Soo	Short track speed skating	Winter	2002, 2006	3	0	1	4
Jin Sun-Yu	Short track speed skating	Winter	2006	3	0	0	3
Yun Mi-Jin	Archery	Summer	2000, 2004	3	0	0	3
Kim Ki-Hoon	Short track speed skating	Winter	1992, 1994	3	0	0	3

On 11 February 2014, Lee Sang-hwa won the gold medal for the women's 500m longtrack speedskating race at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, having previously won the one at the 2010 Games. She became the third woman and first Korean woman to win back-to-back golds at the 500m.

Yuna Kim is the champion of figure skating, she won all the gold medals till 2010. Yoon Seongbin won a gold medal at Pyeongchang 2018, a skeleton for the first time and also became a skeleton king.

Participated event by competition

Summer Olympics

Nation	48	52	56	60	64	68	72	76	84	88	92	96	00	04	08	12	16	20
Archery									•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Athletics	•	•	•	•	•	•	•		•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Badminton							d			e	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Baseball		d	d		d				d	d		•	•		•
Basketball	•		•		•	•			•	•		•	•	•	•
Bowling										d
Boxing	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Canoeing and kayaking									•	•	•	•	•		•	•	•
Cycling	•	•	•	•	•	•			•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Diving				•	•	•			•	•		•	•		•	•	•
Equestrian		•		•	•					•	•			•	•		•
Fencing					•				•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Field hockey										•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Football	•				•					•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Gymnastics				•	•	•			•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Handball									•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Judo					•		•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Modern pentathlon					•				•	•	•	•		•	•	•	•
Rowing					•				•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Sailing									•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Shooting			•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Swimming					•	•	•		•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Synchronized swimming										•			•	•		•
Table tennis										•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Taekwondo										d	d		•	•	•	•	•
Tennis						d			d	•	•	•	•	•	•
Triathlon																•
Volleyball					•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•		•	•
Water polo										•
Weightlifting	•	•	•	•	•	•	•		•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Wrestling	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•

• d : demonstration sports
• e : exhibition sports

Winter Olympics

Event	48	56	60	64	68	72	76	80	84	88	92	94	98	02	06	10	14	18	22
Alpine skiing			•	•	•			•	•	•	•	•	•		•	•	•	•
Biathlon									•	•	•		•	•	•	•	•	•
Bobsleigh																•	•	•
Cross country skiing			•	•	•			•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Curling																	•	•
Figure skating					•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•		•	•	•
Freestyle skiing															•	•	•	•
Ice hockey																		•
Luge													•	•	•	•	•	•
Nordic combined																		•
Short track speed skating										d	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Skeleton														•	•	•	•	•
Ski jumping													•	•	•	•	•	•
Snowboarding																•	•	•
Speed skating	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•

• d : Demonstration sports

2020 unified Korea team

On November 2, 2018, officials from both North and South Korea announced that their countries would participate at the 2020 Summer Olympics, held in Tokyo, Japan, as a unified Korean team.