The North Korean national team has kicked off its training at the Olympic venue, participating for the first time in 8-years. They even trained in the same facility alongside the South Korean national table tennis team.
The North Korean national team, competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics, arrived in France via Charles de Gaulle Airport on Sunday. The North Korean national table tennis team held its first training session at the Olympic site yesterday.
According to the official information site of the Paris Olympic Organizing Committee, MyInfo, North Korea has registered 16 athletes across seven sports for this event. The largest contingent comes from wrestling, with five athletes, followed by three in table tennis, three in diving, two in boxing, and one in gymnastics, athletics, and judo.
North Korea returns to the Olympic stage for the first time since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. After not sending athletes to the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea faced a suspension penalty from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Following the suspension lifting, they returned to the international sports arena at last year’s Hangzhou Asian Games.
A remarkable scene unfolded at the table tennis venue in Paris’s South Paris Arena 4 as athletes from both Koreas trained together under one roof. When South Korean players, including Shin Yu Bin and Lim Jong Hoon, did warm-up and training, North Korean players Pyon Song Gyong, Kim Kum Yong, and Ri Jong Sik entered the venue and immediately began training. They will be in fierce competition against each other at this Olympic event.
The rivalry between North Korea and South Korea will extend beyond table tennis to gymnastics. North Korea’s An Chang Ok is a strong medal candidate in women’s artistic gymnastics. She is the biggest star of North Korean gymnastics and won two gold medals (vault and uneven bars) at last year’s Hangzhou Asian Games.
An Chang Ok, specializing in vault, is set to compete against Yeo Seo Jeong. Yeo made history by winning the first Olympic medal (bronze) for South Korean women’s gymnastics at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
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