Park Tae-hwan swims during a practice at China’s National Aquatics Center, nicknamed the “Water Cube,” Wednesday in Beijing. / Joint Press Corps





By Shim Hyun-chul
Staff Reporter

South Korea is eyeing a top-10 finish in the gold medal race at the Beijing Olympics, which will hold its opening ceremony at 8 p.m. Friday.

The country, which came in ninth in the medal count with nine gold, 12 silver and nine bronze medals at the Athens Olympics four years ago, will send 267 athletes and 122 officials in an attempt to achieve its goal.

South Korea also finished inside the top 10 in 1988 in Seoul (fourth), 1992 in Barcelona (seventh) and 1996 in Atlanta (10th), while it dropped to 12th in 2000 in Sydney.

The South Korean Olympic team, headed by Kim Jung-haeng, expects to win at least 10 gold medals in Beijing, with its strongest sports being archery, taekwondo, weightlifting, swimming, judo, wrestling and shooting.

Along with a top-10 finish, South Korea has a goal to rank second behind China among Asian countries participating in Beijing.

Since the Seoul Olympics, South Korea has usually performed much better in the Olympics than Japan. But in Athens, Japan finished with 16 golds to ranks fifth.

Meanwhile, South and North Korea will not march together in the opening ceremony after failing to reach an agreement.

The two nations marched together at the Sydney and Athens Olympics.

shim@koreatimes.co.kr