Oh Sang-uk of South Korea (L) celebrates after winning the gold medal in the men's individual sabre fencing event at the Paris Olympics at Grand Palais in Paris on Saturday. (Yonhap)
Since bursting onto the national fencing scene in 2015 as a high school phenom, South Korean sabre fencer Oh Sang-uk has been winning almost every title there is to win in his sport.
"Almost" is doing a lot of work in that sentence, because Oh's otherwise impressive resume was missing an Olympic individual medal.
The 27-year-old finally filled that hole Saturday in Paris and did so emphatically with the gold medal at Grand Palais.
Oh defeated Fares Ferjani of Tunisia 15-11 in the final, a match Oh dominated in every aspect until his opponent fought back with some late points. Oh became the first South Korean male sabre fencer to win an Olympic gold.
"When he was closing in, I started sweating so much that it felt like I was soaked in water," Oh said. "Some negative thoughts started creeping into my mind. But then my coach (Won Woo-young) kept telling me: 'You can do this. You're the best.' So I was able to hang on and win."
For all of Oh's talent, individual success had most eluded him. He has won five world titles, but only one of them has come in the individual event. Four of his six Asian championships gold medals have been in the team competition. Oh claimed his first individual Asian Games gold medal last fall, five years after losing to teammate Gu Bon-gil in the final.
Oh went into his Olympic debut in Tokyo in 2021 as the world No. 1, only to lose in the quarterfinals of the individual event. He did help South Korea to the men's gold medal, scoring the team's final five points in a 45-26 rout of Italy. But it was difficult to shake off the feeling Oh had squandered an opportunity for the individual-team title sweep.
Oh will now take another shot at becoming the first South Korean man to pull off that double, with the team event set for Wednesday.
Two of the four fencers from the 2021 gold medal team, Kim Jung-hwan and Kim Jun-ho, have retired. They were in the same booth as co-analysts for South Korean television. Oh and Gu have welcomed Park Sang-won, 23, and Do Gyeong-dong, 24, to the fold as they try to bring South Korea its fourth consecutive men's sabre team title.
Given the others' performances in Saturday's individual event, Oh will likely have to do the heavy lifting next week. Gu, competing in his final Olympics at age 35, was gone after just one match, losing to Ferjani 15-8. Park won his first match but then lost in the round of 16.
Oh insisted that there is a ton of talent on the team, regardless of Saturday's results by his teammates.
"If I hadn't won this gold medal today, someone else from the team would have done it," Oh said. "They're all very good. I just think they struggled today because of nerves. For the team event, I hope we can all rely on each other and help each other."
And it would help South Korea if Oh can pay it forward the way Kim Jung-hwan had done for him.
Oh has often expressed his admiration for the 40-year-old, who retired after winning two individual bronze medals at Olympics. Kim had been the only South Korean male sabre fencer with an Olympic medal before Oh got his gold Saturday.
"I always had so much help from Jung-hwan," Oh said before the Olympics. "As someone competing in the same event, it couldn't have been easy for him to be so generous with his advice. He taught me so much about fencing, and he was always so humble. I really respect him."
Oh said Saturday of all his former teammates, Kim was the one he thought about the most after clinching the gold medal.
"We were roommates for a long time," Oh recalled. "And most of the techniques that I use, I learned from him."
Oh, who has said he'd like to be synonymous with fencing one day, is well on his way to earning the same kind of respect from his peers.
Oh is now the first South Korean fencer to win individual titles at four major events: the Olympics, the Asian Games, the Asian championships and the world championships.
"I never started out trying to accomplish that. I guess I've been doing this long enough," Oh said with a smile. "It's a huge honor because I know not many fencers have achieved that. But this is not the end. I will keep moving forward." (Yonhap)
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