“12 hours of vomit-inducing hell every day”
Jeon Woong-tae (29, Woori Financial Group), the poster boy of Korea’s modern five sports, showered five times a day and endured more than 12 hours of hellish training five times a week. He endured vomiting up to his throat and gave it his all for one reason. To become a ‘wannabe’ at Paris 2024 and stand on the highest podium in the men’s modern pentathlon.
After a surprise bronze medal at Tokyo 2020, he has become the pentathlon’s gold medal favorite in just three years. He became the first South Korean pentathlete to win an Olympic medal and is confident of adding gold to his resume.
“The Olympics is said to be the place where the world’s best athletes gather, but I have full confidence in winning the gold medal,” said Jeon Woong-tae, who will begin his competition schedule on Aug. 8 (KST), in a recent interview with Maeil Business Daily. “I am confident that I will perform well because I have overcome the tough training that I can only think of as hell. I will reward three years of blood, sweat and tears with a gold medal.”
The modern pentathlon is a combination of fencing (epee), swimming (200-meter freestyle), equestrian (show jumping), and laser run, a combination of athletics and shooting. The amount of training required is unparalleled in other sports, as athletes must excel in all five events, not just one.
“The process of preparing for the Paris Olympics was harder than any other competition,” says Jeon. “When I was training for five sports, I basically took five showers, but when I was taking a lot of showers, I took close to ten,” says Jeon. “But the sense of accomplishment after a day’s training and the thought that I was getting closer to the gold medal kept me going. Thanks to the huge training volume, I am now able to perform well in all five events.”
Of the five events, Jeon’s favorites were fencing and kumite. Fencing is a highly relative sport that is often referred to as a physical game of rock-paper-scissors, so Jeon trained to be able to win against any opponent. That’s not all. Even in horseback riding, where he was randomly assigned a horse, he prepared himself to perform at his best.
“I realized that I needed to be good in both events to win gold, so I put the most time into it. In fencing, I trained with the unemployed team, so I am confident that I can beat any fencer I meet. In equestrian, I feel like I can cross the finish line in a fast time with any horse. I think that’s the great thing about modern pentathlon, you can’t be 메이저사이트 good at one thing and not be good at the other, so I’m looking forward to putting on a great show in Paris.”
Experience is another reason why Jeon is so confident of winning gold. He’ll be competing in his third Olympics after Rio de Janeiro 2016 and Tokyo 2020, and he plans to use his fox-like savvy to overwhelm his opponents.
“Having competed in the previous two Olympics, I have the know-how to perform well without realizing it. There is tremendous power in old age and experience,” he said. “The biggest difference from the past is that I don’t falter when I make mistakes. Now I have the strength to focus on my game until the end, no matter what the situation,” he said.
Jeon arrived in France on March 29 and spent three days training at the Team Korea Paris Platform, a pre-camp organized by the Korea Sports Federation in Fontainebleau, outside Paris. As he continues to make last-minute adjustments to his physical condition in the athletes’ village and nearby training facilities, Jeon is imagining himself standing on the top step of the podium every day.
“I’ve had many dreams come true, including the Tokyo Games. “Even before I came to Paris, I imagined myself cheering with the gold medal around my neck countless times,” said Jeon. “I also trained a lot on the image of the pentathlon according to the strategy I had set up. I will do my best to make the national anthem resound in the Palace of Versailles, the home of Baron Pierre Coubertin, the founder of modern pentathlon.”
Jeon Woong-tae, who said the atmosphere in the modern pentathlon team was the best among the Korean athletes at the Paris Games, also expressed his desire to stand on the podium with his teammates. “I happened to be the captain of the team. “My teammates are one of the reasons why I was able to handle the hard training normally, even when I was vomiting several times a day,” he said. “Modern pentathlon is five times harder because of the nature of the sport, but I was able to overcome it because we trained together by shouting out five more words. I will try to play a good role as captain so that we can win a medal together.”
Jeon Woong-tae and Seo Chang-wan, 27, will kick off the men’s fencing competition at 6 p.m. on Aug. 8. The semifinals and finals of the men’s modern pentathlon will be held on the 9th and 10th, respectively. The semifinals and finals of the women’s event, featuring Sung Seung-min (21) and Kim Sun-woo (28), will be held on the 10th and 11th, respectively.