Toward a higher place again… Korean volleyball, spread your wings of rebound!
Park Jeong -ah. The Korean men’s and women’s volleyball teams seemed destined to reach the semifinals, at least on the Asian stage. Especially at the Asian Games, standing on the podium was the ‘default’. The men’s national team won medals in 14 consecutive competitions, from Bangkok 1966 to Jakarta and Palembang 2018. He won seven silver medals and four bronze medals, along with gold medals at the 1978 Bangkok, 2002 Busan, and 2006 Doha Games. Excluding the 5th place finish in Doha 2006, the women’s national team also won 8 silver medals and 4 bronze medals, along with gold medals at the 1994 Hiroshima and 2014 Incheon Games.
In the 2018 Jakarta and Palembang, the men won a silver medal and the women won a bronze medal, but both the men’s and women’s national teams are not confident of winning a medal in the 2022 Hangzhou. This is because they achieved disastrous results in various international competitions they participated in after completing the 2022-2023 V-League.
Han Seon-su (left), Park Jeong-ah
In particular, the fall of women’s volleyball, which seemed like only yesterday from its legendary glory of reaching the semifinals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, is shocking. After the retirement of national team veterans such as Kim Yeon-kyung, Kim Su-ji (Heungkuk Life Insurance), and Yang Hyo-jin (Hyundai Engineering & Construction), who had worn the Taegeuk symbol for more than 10 years, Korean women’s volleyball was relegated to a ‘neighborhood book.’ In the 2023 Volleyball Nations League (VNL), they suffered the humiliation of losing all 12 matches, and in the 2023 Asian Championships, they failed to reach the semifinals and also lost the 5th and 6th place match against Kazakhstan, finishing in 6th place. The world ranking of the women’s volleyball team, which was in the top 10, plummeted to 35th.메이저사이트
The men’s national team also finished in 3rd place after being defeated by Bahrain in the semifinals of the 2023 Asia Challenge Cup, where they were confident of winning due to the absence of Japan and China, and also finished in 5th place after struggling at the Asian Championships.
At least, there is something to look forward to in men’s volleyball in Hangzhou. This is because the best current setter, Han (Korean Air), who did not participate in the Asia Challenge Cup or Asian Championship, is playing. It is evaluated that it is worth a try if Han can double the destructive power of the best strikers in the V-League with his skillful game management and quick toss work.
Women’s volleyball does not have any additional power elements. In addition, there is a huge physical burden as the 2024 Paris Olympics qualifiers will be held in Poland from the 16th to the 24th. It seems that they can only hope to advance to the semifinals or higher if they raise their organizational strength as much as possible through confrontations with world-class powerhouses in Poland and carry that momentum to Hangzhou. Park Jeong-ah (Pepper Savings Bank), who has been struggling in international competitions since taking over the national team captaincy from Kim Yeon-kyung, must demonstrate the unique decision-making power of ‘Clutch Park’.