Korea eyes multiple gold medals in fencing at Paris Olympics

With the Paris Olympics two months away, the Korean national fencing team said Monday its goal is to bring home

multiple gold medals.

Korea has won at least one fencing gold medal at every Olympics since 2012, with one gold, one silver and three bronze

medals in Tokyo three years ago.

That lone gold came from the men's team sabre event, with Gu Bon-gil, Oh Sang-uk, Kim Jung-hwan and Kim Jun-ho

coming through for Korea's third straight Olympic gold in that discipline.

This time, Gu and Oh will have new teammates in Park Sang-won and Do Gyeong-dong. Kim Jung-hwan has not competed

internationally this season, while Kim Jun-ho has retired from the national team.

The new-look sabre squad teamed up for silver at a World Cup event in Budapest in March, quelling concerns about their

Olympic chances.

"Our goal is to win both the individual and the team gold medals," said Gu, the senior member of the team at age 35,

during the national team media day at Jincheon National Training Center in Jincheon, about 85 kilometers south of Seoul.

His coach, Won Woo-young, wasn't as brash in his prediction.

"The U.S. team has been on the rise, and Hungary has had the same group for a long time. These two teams will be tough

to beat," said Won, who competed on the 2012 Olympic gold medal team. "We've been analyzing them closely. Winning

three gold medals in a row would mean so much to us, and we'll try to write history."

No country has won three men's sabre team gold medals in a row since Hungary collected seven straight Olympic titles

from 1928 to 1960.

For the second straight Olympics, both team and individual events in all three weapons for both men and women will be

contested, instead of a rotation system for team events that left out the men's team sabre and the women's team foil events

Korea will compete in eight events: the men's individual and team sabre, women's individual and team epee, women's

individual and team sabre, men's individual foil, and men's individual epee.

In the women's epee, Korea will bring back the same quartet that won silver in Tokyo: Song Se-ra, Choi In-jeong, Kang

Young-mi and Lee Hye-in. Choi had retired last fall after winning the individual and team gold medals at the Hangzhou

Asian Games last year, but she has returned to the piste at age 34 in pursuit of her first Olympic gold.

"Winning an Olympic gold would be a dream come true, and the thought of getting to the top is what keeps me going

through some rigorous training," Choi said.

The women's sabre team will be led by Yoon Ji-su, the only remaining member of the bronze medal team from Tokyo. Now

31, Yoon will be competing alongside Choi Se-bin, Jeon Ha-young and Jeon Eun-hye — all of them in their early to mid-

20s.

"We've had a fairly smooth transition to a young generation," Yoon said. "They were good enough to make the Olympic

team, and I hope we can all compete without any fear. We should be able to get to the semifinals, and once we're there, we

can push for a medal."

In Paris, the fencing competition goes from July 27 to Aug. 4.

KOREA EYES MULTIPLE GOLD MEDALS IN FENCING AT PARIS OLYMPICS