Artist Lee Ri-young and Heo Yoon-seo Win Olympic Qualification... “The Stage I Dreamed of”
Korean artistic swimming participates in Olympics for the first time in 12 years
Lee Ri-young (23, Busan Swimming Federation) and Heo Yoon-seo (18, scheduled to enter Apgujeong High School and Sungkyunkwan University) secured qualifications to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
It has been 12 years since sisters Park Hyun-sun and Park Hyun-ha at the 2012 London Games that Korean athletes have appeared on the Olympic stage in artistic swimming.
The Korea Swimming Federation announced on the 12th, "Korea has won the right to participate in the artistic swimming duet event at the Paris Olympics."
National team leader Kim Hyo-mi said that day, "The latest information regarding qualification for the Paris Olympics was updated today.
I was anxious, but I heard good news." 바카라사이트
Lee Ri-young, who has maintained the Taegeuk mark for nine years since 2016 and became an Olympian after her third attempt, said through the Korea Swimming Federation, "There were difficulties such as the Olympic tickets for the duet event being reduced from 22 to 18 and the regulations changing."
Looking back, he said, "I'm really happy that I didn't give up and worked harder and achieved the moment I dreamed of."
Heo Yoon-seo said, "I am truly thrilled and happy to stand on the Olympic stage, which I have dreamed of for a long time," and expressed her determination, "I will not miss the precious opportunity I have earned through hard preparation and will compete without regrets."
Lee Ri-young and Heo Yoon-seo are participating in the Olympics for the fifth time, following Seoul in 1988 (Kim Mi-jin-Ha Soo-kyung), 2000 Sydney (Yu Nami-Jang Yun-kyung), 2004 Athens (Yu Nami-Kim Seong-eun), and 2012 London (Park Hyun-sun-Park Hyun-ha).
It was recorded as a Korean duet.
18 teams will participate in the artistic swimming duet competition at the Paris Olympics.
The International Swimming Federation decided to first give the right to participate to the 10 countries that qualified for the team competition and the 5 duet teams that won the continental championships, and distribute the remaining 3 tickets according to the results of the 2024 Doha World Championships.
As the 10 countries competing in the team event and the duet winning the continental championship overlapped, 6 teams actually qualified for the duet event at the Paris Olympics through the results of the Doha World Championships.
Korea, played by Lee Ri-young and Heo Yoon-seo, also became one of the six teams that secured qualification through the Doha World Championships.
Lee Ri-young and Heo Yoon-seo Australia, Canada, Egypt, France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, China, Spain, USA (participating in both team and duet events), Austria, New Zealand, UK, Netherlands, Greece, Israel, Ukraine (participating in duet events) will compete with the duo at the Paris Olympics.
Their performance at the Doha World Championships led to their participation in the Paris Olympics.
Lee Ri-young and Heo Yun-seo placed 10th in the duet technical final at the Doha World Championships.
This is Korea's best achievement in this event since the 2007 Melbourne Games, when the World Aquatics Championships divided the women's artistic swimming duet event into technical and free.
The previous highest ranking in this event was Lee Ri-young and Heo Yun-seo's 12th place in Budapest in 2022.
Lee Ri-young and Heo Yun-seo also advanced to the finals of the World Championships in the duet free for the first time in Korean artistic history and ranked 10th.
Lee Ri-young and Heo Yoon-seo, who have opened the door to the Olympics, will soon resume training to show more elaborate and spectacular performances in Paris.
Leader Kim Hyo-mi said, “After Lee Lee-young and Heo Yun-seo placed 4th place at the Hangzhou Asian Games last fall, we focused on technical training to avoid receiving base marks (lowest score per technical element),” and added, “The completeness of performing techniques at the Doha competition.
He looked back at the 2024 World Championships, saying, “There has been a clear improvement in this aspect.”
He then said, “For the Paris Olympics, we plan to revise the work so that we can perform at a higher level of difficulty,” and added, “We will also pay attention to the artistic aspect and strike a balance between the two categories (art score and performance score)” was partially revealed.