Gymnast Shin wins gold medal in men’s vault

South Korean gymnast Shin Jeahwan vaulted into the record books at the Tokyo Olympics, Monday, winning the men’s vault gold medal to become only the second Olympic gymnastics champion from the country.

Shin scored 14.783 points on average after two vaults in the final held at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre in Tokyo, beating Denis Abliazin of the Russian Olympic Committee for the gold medal. Shin had 14.733 points with his first vault and 14.833 with the second.

Shin and Abliazin were tied in their scores at 14.783, but Shin had a higher difficulty score with 6.000 in his first vault. Both of the Russian’s vaults had 5.600 points in difficulty scores.

Shin joins the 2012 men’s vault champion Yang Hak-seon as the only South Korean gold medalists in Olympic gymnastics.

His gold came about 24 hours after another South Korean gymnast, Yeo Seo-jeong, won bronze in the women’s vault. Shin was the top qualifier among eight finalists and the sixth vaulter to perform.

With his first vault that had a 6.000 difficulty score, Shin added 8.833 points in execution score but lost 0.1 in penalties for a total of 14.733.

Offspring of former sports stars are shining at the Tokyo Olympics, emulating or even exceeding their parents’ achievements in past Olympic events.

On Sunday, gymnast

Yeo Seo-jeong brought Korea its first-ever Olympic medal in women’s gymnastics after finishing third in the vault. In her first vault of the eight-participant final, Yeo posted the highest 15.333 points, raising her prospects for gold, but she came up a little short in her second with 14.133.

As well as receiving accolades for her medal-earning achievement, the podium finish has thrust the 19-year-old into the limelight as the father-daughter combination of winning Olympic medals is an unprecedented occurrence for Korea. Her father is Yeo Hong-chul, who clinched a silver medal in the men’s vault at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

Admitting that her father helped boost her confidence en route to the Tokyo Olympics, as well as facing pressure from being the daughter of an Olympic medalist, she hopes to surpass her father.

“Now, I am going to work hard and try to outdo him,” she said.

Fencer Yoon Ji-su is another second-generation athlete who showed off her pedigree at the Games.

Yoon, the daughter of former star pitcher Yoon Hak-gil, played a key role in the women’s sabre team rallying to beat Italy for the bronze medal, which was also the nation’s first Olympic medal in the event.

In the nine-bout contest, Korea was trailing by 10 points until the fifth match, but Yoon, a two-time Olympian, scored 10 points, helping Korea reduce the deficit by four and paving the way for her teammates to put the squad ahead.

The senior Yoon, who played for the Lotte Giants for 12 seasons from 1986 to 1997 and had 117 wins, threw a record 100 complete games in the Korea Baseball Organization and participated in the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, when baseball was a demonstration sport, but Korea finished off the podium after losing to Taiwan in the bronze medal game.

“I am really proud of my daughter, who won the Olympic medal that I could not,” the senior Yoon said, admitting that he was planning on traveling to Tokyo to watch his daughter perform but could not due to the strict quarantine guidelines.

Lee Jung-hoo has also played up to expectations in Tokyo, being the son of former baseball great Lee Jongbeom, as the Kim Kyung-moon side is looking for another gold following the one in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Baseball was dropped from the Olympics in 2012 and 2016.

In Sunday’s match against the Dominican Republic, the junior Lee delivered a game-tying double in the bottom of the ninth and scored the winner on Kim Hyun-soo’s walk-off single for a 4-3 victory.

According to the junior Lee, regular conversations with his father have helped him in preparing for the Olympics mentally.

“He’s been telling me not to put too much pressure on myself,” he said

The senior Lee, a two-time Korean Series MVP and 13-time All-Star, had a solid career on the international stage, but he never played at the Summer Olympics. In 1992, he made the national team, but Team Korea failed to reach the Olympic finals. In 2004, he was a member of the national squad, but the team again failed to qualify, this time for the Athens Olympics.