Korea's archery team, aiming to sweep every event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, begins its hunt for gold. Korea is chasing all 10 archery titles across compound and recurve men's and women's individual and team events, as well as the mixed team events.
According to Asian Games organizers on the 29th, Korea's compound archery squad will open the country's medal push in earnest.
The compound team competes in the semifinals and finals of the men's, women's and mixed team events on the 30th, chasing three gold medals in a single day. They will be the first gold medal matches in archery at these Games.
For both the men's and women's team events, the semifinals loom as the biggest hurdle. Both squads face India, the dominant force in compound archery, in a do-or-die matchup. India swept all five compound gold medals at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games. The Korean men's team in particular carries a painful memory, having settled for silver after losing to India in the team final in Hangzhou. Leading Korea's bid for revenge is Italian coach Sergio Pagni, who guided India at the Hangzhou Games. Korea is aiming for a satisfying measure of payback along with a place in the final. In the mixed team event, Korea faces China for a spot in the final.
In the compound individual events, every Korean entrant in both the men's and women's draws has reached the quarterfinals, with the semifinals and finals set for Oct. 1.
Korea is also on course in the recurve events. In the men's recurve individual round of 16 held on the 29th, Lee Woo-seok secured a quarterfinal berth after a tight shoot-off, while Kang Chae-young and Oh Ye-jin advanced to the quarterfinals in the women's draw. One setback was the elimination of Kim Je-deok, a gold medalist at the 2024 Paris Olympics, who fell to India's Neeraj Chauhan. Kim is the Korean archery team's first competitor to be knocked out at these Games. Under individual event rules limiting each country to two entrants, Lee will carry Korea's medal hopes alone in the men's recurve individual event.
In the recurve team events, Korea reached the semifinals in all three events — men's team, women's team and mixed team. On Oct. 2, the men face Taiwan, the women meet Indonesia and the mixed team takes on China for places in the finals.
Korea swept every archery event four times — at Beijing in 1990, Bangkok in 1998, Doha in 2006 and Guangzhou in 2010 — back when the program consisted of four events: the recurve men's and women's individual and team competitions. But since compound archery was added at the 2014 Incheon Games, Korea has yet to sweep all 10 events.
