“MVP? There are more gold medals coming out in swimming, so I’ll wait and see.”
He has swept three MVPs in just one year. Lim Ji-hyun (21) of Korea National Sports University has been named the best player in the National Sports Festival.
The Korea Sports Association announced the MVP of the 105th National Sports Festival, which closed on Thursday. The MVP of the event was Lim Si-hyun, who was selected by voting by a group of reporters belonging to the Korea Sports Reporters’ Union.
At this year’s National Sports Festival, she won the 60m and 50m individual and team events (Kim Na-ri, Jung Da-young and Jo Su-hye) and distance awards, winning four gold medals. In particular, the 50m set a new competition record and the 60m set a world tie. She also won four gold medals and one silver medal by finishing second in the 30m event.
In particular, the individual competition with Oh Ye-jin (Gwangju Women’s University) was impressive. In the first set, Lim Si-hyun took the lead by putting all three shots into 10 points, but the match was played within a point until the fifth set. In the second set, Lim Si-hyun shot 1 point and 2 points, and Oh Ye-jin shot 2 points and 1 point 9 points, which tied the score.
Later, after Lim led 29-28 in the third set, both the fourth and fifth sets were tied 29-29. The final score was 6-4, and although Lim won in a close game, it went into an unknown development. After the match, Lim Si-hyun himself thanked his opponent, saying, “Oh Ye-jin fought well, so I was able to enjoy the game more, and I don’t think I’ll forget it.” 스포츠토토
Im Ji-hyun, who made his name known in earnest by winning three gold medals (individual, team, and mixed team) at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games last year, became a hero of the 2024 Paris Olympics. In this competition, which was his first participation in the Olympics, he won three gold medals by sweeping the women’s individual, women’s team, and mixed team events with Kim Woo-jin. He became the second athlete to win three Olympic gold medals after Ansan (Archery) at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
As a result, Lim was named the MVP of the Korean team in both the Asian Games and the Olympics. Although he could have tried to win more gold medals in swimming, he showed a calm reaction, saying, “I’ll wait and see.”
In fact, Hwang Sun-woo (Gangwon Provincial Government) of the MVP for the third consecutive year (2021-2023) won five gold medals (100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 400m relay, 800m medley relay), while Kim Woo-min (400m freestyle, 1500m freestyle, 400m relay, 800m medley) also won four gold medals. However, Lim Ji-hyun stopped Hwang from losing four consecutive games and became MVP of the National Sports Festival.
Now, he has the final round of the 2024 Archery World Cup (Oct. 19-20) and the second round of the 2025 national team trials (Oct. 29-Nov. 2). “I will do my best to achieve a successful ending and show you my best,” he said.
