Korea dominates one kind of archery. Another has proven harder to conquer

For South Korean sports fans, archery has long been almost synonymous with gold.

The country has dominated the sport on the Olympic stage, where its women have won every team title since the event was introduced in 1988. At the Asian Games, Korea has been just as formidable.

But an important distinction can get lost in that success: Korea's archery dominance is, above all, a recurve story.

In compound, a separate discipline that uses bows fitted with pulleys and magnifying sights, the landscape is very different. Introduced to the Asian Games in 2014, the discipline is set to make its Olympic debut in 2028. And once again at the ongoing Aichi-Nagoya Games, India blocked Korea's path to gold.

On Wednesday, the South Korean team of Park Ye-rin, Park Jung-yoon and Kang Yeonseo lost to India by a single point, ending the game in the women’s compound team semifinal 234-233. In the bronze medal match, Korea beat Taiwan to claim bronze for the second straight Asian Games.

Later in the day, South Korea's Choi Yong-hee and Park Jung-yoon took silver in the compound mixed team final, with India winning the title in a shoot-off after the match ended 157-157. Korea took silver for the second straight year.

At the ongoing Asian Games, recurve and compound are splitting the 10 gold medals evenly.

At the Olympics, however, recurve has been the sole bow style. That will change at the 2028 Los Angeles Games, when compound makes its Olympic debut in the mixed team event, increasing the number of archery gold medals from five to six.

South Korea entered the Asian Games aiming to win all 10 archery titles, hoping to extend its dominance from recurve to compound.

The women’s recurve team is represented by Kang Chae-young, Oh Ye-jin and Lee Yun-ji, while the men’s team comprises the 2024 Paris Olympics squad, with Kim Je-deok, Kim Woo-jin and Lee Woo-seok selected.

Kim Jong-ho, Choi Eun-gyu and Choi Yong-hee make up the compound men's team. The trio won gold together at the 2025 Hyundai Archery World Cup stage in Madrid.

The women’s team consists of Park Ye-rin, Park Jung-yoon and Kang Yeon-seo. Park Ye-rin won silver at last year’s World Archery Youth Championships. Kang, 14, became the youngest archer selected to represent Korea at a major international competition, despite her limited experience in outdoor events abroad.

Korea’s archery system has been built around recurve for decades, and it was slower to establish itself in compound after the discipline was added to the Asian Games in 2014. India and other countries have emerged as strong competitors.

Korea won gold in the women’s compound team event in 2014 and took the title again in 2018. Its bid for a third consecutive gold ended with a semifinal defeat to Chinese Taipei at the 2023 Hangzhou Games, where it went on to beat Indonesia for bronze.

South Korea has never won gold in the compound mixed team event since it joined the Asian Games in 2018. Korea took silver that year and again in Hangzhou in 2023, losing both finals by just one point.

India won all five compound gold medals at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, ending Korea's run at the top of the archery medal table for the first time since 1978.