Anchor: The 2024 Paris Olympics came to a close on Sunday after 17 days of thrilling sporting action. South Korea delivered an extraordinary performance, finishing eighth overall and defying expectations to achieve one of the nation’s most successful Olympic campaigns ever. 
Our Yun Sohyang has more. 

Report: The Olympic flame was officially extinguished on Sunday at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, with Paris handing off the Games to Los Angeles. 

South Korea finished eighth in the total medal count, winning 13 gold, nine silver and ten bronze for a total of 32 medals.

The United States topped the medal table with 126 medals, including 40 gold, followed by China with 91 medals, also including 40 gold. 

Despite heading into the Games with its smallest delegation since 1976 -  only 144 athletes competing in 21 sports - Team Korea defied expectations by winning 13 gold medals, matching the record set at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

South Korea met its initial goal of five gold medals just three days into the Games and continued to accumulate medals, excelling in archery, shooting, fencing, and taekwondo. 

Team Korea swept the five archery gold medals, with Kim Woo-jin becoming South Korea’s most decorated Olympian, with five career gold medals.

In shooting, the team brought home three gold and three silver medals. Notably, Ban Hyo-jin, at just 16 years old, won the women’s 10-meter air rifle event, becoming South Korea’s youngest Summer Olympic champion.

Fencer Oh Sang-uk clinched Korea’s first gold in the men’s individual sabre event and later reached the top of the podium once again with his teammates Gu Bon-gil, Park Sang-won, and Do Kyung-dong, winning Korea’s third consecutive men’s sabre team title. 

Taekwondo also proved to be a stronghold for South Korea, with first-time Olympians Park Tae-joon and Kim Yu-jin winning gold in the men’s -58 kilogram and women’s -57 kilogram categories, respectively. 

An Se-young, the world’s top-ranked badminton women’s singles player, lived up to her reputation by securing her first Olympic gold medal.

The South Korean team also achieved significant milestones in other sports. Im Ae-ji earned South Korea’s first Olympic medal in women’s boxing, with a bronze in the 54-kilogram event. In judo, the team won five medals, including two silver and three bronze, marking a significant improvement from their performance three years ago. 

South Korea added two bronze medals on the penultimate day and one silver medal and one bronze on the last day. 

The trio of Shin Yu-bin, Jeon Ji-hee and Lee Eun-hye beat Germany in the women’s table tennis team bronze medal match on Saturday. Later in the day, Lee Da-bin won the women's +67 kilogram taekwondo bronze medal. 

On the final day, Seong Seung-min made history by becoming the first Asian woman to win a modern pentathlon medal since the event was added to the Olympics in 2000.

South Korea’s final medal at the Games was won by Park Hye-jeong, who won the women’s weightlifting silver medal in the heaviest weight class. 

With the Paris Olympics officially in the books, the baton is now passed to Los Angeles, the host city for the 2028 Games.
Yun Sohyang, KBS World Radio News.