South Korean Athletes Start The Quest and Depart For Rio Paralympics
South Korean Athletes who are the delegates for the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics started their quest as they departed on Tuesday to perform at the quadrennial competition.
A total of 80 South Korean athletes from the seven sports such as swimming, judo, tennis, archery, rowing, athletics and table tennis flew to Atlanta where their training camp is located. A week before landing to Brazil, they will train in the US.
The Korea Paralympic Committee said that Rio de Janeiro is very far from South Korea, they decided to train in Atlanta to help the athletes recover their fitness. It is the first time for the South Korean Paralympic delegation to have an overseas training camp before competing in the Paralympics.
"Since we are having this overseas training with support from various communities, we will give back by performing well at the Paralympics. Our athletes will give their utmost effort to present hopeful messages to South Korea," said Choung Jai-jun, South Korea's chef de mission, at Incheon International Airport.
The Rio Paralympics will start on September 7-18. In 11 sports, a total of 81 athletes and 51 officials from South Korea will compete for the Paralympics.
"We will achieve our goals. We want to show that disabled athletes can also perform well," said by wheelchair tennis player, Lee Ha-gel who is also the men's captain of the delegation.
The South Korean athletes started their quest in order to gain pride and glory for themselves as well as for their country. The long wait is over as they compete and show the fruits of their labor after long months of training and practice.
South Korea bagged a total of 9 gold medals at the previous London Paralympics in 2012 and finished at 12thplace. South Korea aims to win 10 gold medals and top 12 ranked in Rio Paralympics.