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Post by HappyFan on Aug 4, 2021 7:58:36 GMT
The most likely best women's volleyball player on planet Earth is Korean superstar Kim Yeon-koung. Kim Yeon Koung led the South Korean volleyball squad to a fantastic upset of #4 Turkey in the quarterfinals. The match went five sets, with Kim fittingly putting away the winning point. The Koreans advance to the semis with a real chance to win their first medal. Good luck, ladies! One advantage they had is the Kim speaks Turkish thanks to having played in their leagues, so she could understand what the players were saying to each other!
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Post by rlspore on Aug 5, 2021 2:14:46 GMT
Kim is amazing - speaks English quite well too. And many of the Korean golfers have been posting in support. Funny video with Kim (Bread Unnie) on Nayeon's YouTube; she's not much of a golfer, haha, but she's very funny: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYsiEKE7ZHo&t=38s
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Post by HappyFan on Aug 7, 2021 18:37:46 GMT
Competitive climbing is a new event that has quickly become quite popular in Korea. The event has made it for the first time to the Olympics this year. Korea had a top women's competitor in Jain Kim, who won the World Cup three times. Kim publicized her sport by climbing the outside of the Lotte Tower in 2017 (!). Some call her the greatest female climber in the world. Here is a brief interview (with English subtitles) from 2016: However, she wasn't at the Olympics. She gave birth to a daughter in March, and is otherwise occupied! http://instagr.am/p/CQ3l8mTLYXu Instead, the Koreans sent a teenager named Chae Hyeon Seo. Seo premiered in the world climbing leagues in 2019, winning the overall Lead Cup for that season with four individual wins. So what is competitive climbing? There are three disciplines, which usually award separate medals, but at the Olympics they are combined into one total medal. Speed: climb up the wall as fast as you can. Fastest wins. I watched this and it literally takes 6 seconds, it's INSANE. Bouldering: A climber is given four walls and five minutes to conquer each. If she can get halfway she gets a half point, all the way a full point. Lead: Climbers have six minutes to get as far up a tricky wall as possible; the more checkpoints one reaches, the more points one gets. Total score is determined by rank in each discipline. They multiply your three ranks, and the lowest score wins. Seo, whose nickname is 'The Commissioner', managed to get into the finals (the top 8 in qualifying), but only finished 8th in the finals (the qualifying scores are wiped in the final round). She is a lead specialist and not surprisingly finished second in that in the finals. However, she was last in speed, and also in bouldering. In 2024, they plan to break the sport up into two disciplines: speed in one, bouldering and lead in the other. This should benefit Jain Kim (if she returns) and the young Seo. But in the meantime, good job for the teen star! Jain and the Commissioner: I love the shirt they wore! Groovy way to represent the Korean flag!
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Post by HappyFan on Aug 7, 2021 18:39:25 GMT
Kim is amazing - speaks English quite well too. And many of the Korean golfers have been posting in support. Funny video with Kim (Bread Unnie) on Nayeon's YouTube; she's not much of a golfer, haha, but she's very funny: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYsiEKE7ZHo&t=38sAlas, the Brazilians wiped the floor with the Koreans, so they advanced to the gold medal match against the US. The Koreans can still win a bronze if they beat Serbia in the bronze medal match. Good luck to them! It would be nice for Kim to get at least one medal before she retires!
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Post by HappyFan on Aug 7, 2021 19:08:51 GMT
Here's another clip of some highlights of Jain Kim's climbing achievements. She speaks English here!
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Post by HappyFan on Aug 8, 2021 18:12:55 GMT
Kim is amazing - speaks English quite well too. And many of the Korean golfers have been posting in support. Funny video with Kim (Bread Unnie) on Nayeon's YouTube; she's not much of a golfer, haha, but she's very funny: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYsiEKE7ZHo&t=38sAlas, the Brazilians wiped the floor with the Koreans, so they advanced to the gold medal match against the US. The Koreans can still win a bronze if they beat Serbia in the bronze medal match. Good luck to them! It would be nice for Kim to get at least one medal before she retires! The Koreans team's run came to an end with a straight set loss to Serbia in the Bronze Medal match. Once again, Kim came close to getting a medal only to fall short. Shortly after the loss, she announced her retirement
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Post by HappyFan on Aug 8, 2021 18:35:37 GMT
Last night I saw one of the craziest things I saw in this Olympics. The Saudi was going for the first ever gold medal in any sport for his country. It was the heavyweight division of karate, fought in the Budokan no less. His opponent was the Iranian world champ, but the Saudi was dominating and looked on his way to gold. Then the Iranian lunged for him, and the Saudi clocked him with a kick that laid him flat out. It was amazing watching this huge guy just collapse unmoving onto his back like a sack of potatoes. That was one hell of a kick. After five minutes they carted him out on a stretcher. Gold for Saudi Arabia, right? Not so fast. The refs decided that the kick had been illegal and awarded the gold to the Iranian. The dude who was half dead on the canvas, who had been trailing the entire match, won gold. The Saudi was beside himself with shock. The penalty was that the Saudi had hit too hard (!!!) Apparently the Iranian didn't learn he had won until he awoke in the hospital and was told by his coach. He did make it to the medal ceremony. It would have been one thing if the Saudi had tried to do something shady, but it was clear his kick only connected like that because the Iranian ran into it. Biggest ripoff of the Games I think.
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Post by rlspore on Aug 9, 2021 6:07:01 GMT
Sport climbing was interesting, but probably should be split up into the various disciplines. The speed climbing needs a bit more difficulty, perhaps? All over too fast, and not much variation. Seo was impressive in the Lead, and did ok with some of the bouldering, but just didn't have the reach/height to excel, it seems. The two Japanese were quite impressive, but that Slovenian who won gold was just unreal. Good to know Korea has another great climber.
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