Olympic archery event ends by the smallest of margins

South Korea continues its dominancy over women’s team archery at the Olympic Games.

On Sunday, their squad won the gold medal over China to celebrate its 10th straight victory in the event: ever since women’s team archery was introduced in 1988, South Korea has come away as the winner. No decision was close as this one, though.

Facing a shoot-off against the Chinese team, which has now had to settle for silver on five separate occasions, the South Koreans won on the smallest of margins:

the gold medal archery match came down to a one-arrow shoot-off AND THEN it came down to an arrow so close to the border between a 9 and a 10 that someone had to come out and look at it with a magnifying glass. unreal drama pic.twitter.com/vzc7Pbal8D

— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) July 28, 2024

The shoot-off was necessary after the two three-woman teams were tied at two apiece following the first four sets. South Korea secured its 5-4 win by scoring 29 points in the fifth set versus China’s 27.

The victory was a tight one, however.

On two occasions, a judge had to take a close look at whether the eventual champions had scored 10 or 9 points. With the help of a magnifying glass, the higher point count was awarded twice — allowing Jeon Hun-young, Lim Si-hyeon and Nam Su-hyeon to keep their country’s gold medal streak alive.

“I’m very happy about keeping this place in Korean archery history,” Si-hyeon said after the thrilling final match. “Even though other countries have progressed, we’ll try to keep our place.”

For the last 40 years, South Korea has done just that — even if it took a hair’s breadth this time around.