Koreans who shoot arrows the best.

Japan is famous for using knives, China spears, and Korea is famous for using arrows well. The ancient Chinese called Koreans Dongyi people. This meant that the people who were good at shooting large arrows in the east. Let me introduce an interesting story related to the Korean bow.

Historically, there are many records that Koreans used bows well. Typically, there is an anecdote during the war between Goryeo and Mongolia. In 1232, Goryeo decided to move its capital to Ganghwa Island and continue its fight with Mongolia. The decision was made because Mongolia was weak in naval warfare due to the nature of nomadic peoples raised in the grasslands. Seeing this, Mongolia was very angry and invaded Goryeo with General Salitai at the forefront. Mongolia, which failed to attack Ganghwado Island, attacked Yongin after taking Seoul down. However, an arrow shot by a monk named Kim Yun-hoo pierced the neck of the commander-in-chief, Salitai. Mongolian troops, whose commander-in-chief was killed, were forced to retreat.

Koreans are famous for shooting arrows, but they are also famous for making arrows. In the past, there was a mechanical bow called Cheonbono in Korea. Cheonbono was made by Gu Jincheon during the Silla Period. It was a traditional Korean weapon that looked similar to an catapult. It reportedly had a range of 1386 meters. This was more than 10 times higher than the 120 meters range of most bows. The destructive force was also said to have been able to penetrate enemy armor and pitches. It is said to have been similar in performance to sniper guns and rockets today. In order to devour Silla, which integrated Goguryeo and Baekje, China's Tang Dynasty attacked Silla with 200,000 troops in 670 along with nomadic peoples. (In fact, Silla, who noticed Tang's ambition, made a preemptive attack.) The Tang Dynasty of China was a unified dynasty that unified the Chinese continent and was the strongest country in East Asia at that time. Silla had 30,000 soldiers, who protected the archers with spearheads and destroyed the enemy's camp with Cheonbono. The war ended with Silla's victory, and after this war, China could no longer cross the Korean Peninsula.

What's surprising is that Koreans still shoot arrows well. There is a saying that being selected as the national archery team in Korea is more difficult than winning a gold medal in the Olympic archery event. At the Olympics, archery has four medals: men's individual, men's team, women's individual and women's team competitions. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, mixed men's and women's events will be added, and a total of five medals will be held in archery. As of 1972, South Korea won 39 medals in archery, including 23 gold medals. The U.S. has the second largest number of medals in archery after South Korea. The United States has eight gold medals and 16 medals in total. In particular, the eight consecutive women's team wins from 1988 to 2016 are said to be a milestone that even U.S. basketball has not achieved.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Chinese spectators caused a disturbance in the women's individual archery finals. They used a roar, whistle, trumpet, and vuvuzela to interrupt when a South Korean player, the Chinese player's opponent, fired an arrow. As a result, the Korean athlete, who lost concentration, made a series of mistakes and missed the gold medal. As a result, the practice method of Korean archery athletes has changed. They sit next to a very noisy soccer stadium or baseball stadium and practice archery. Like this, Korean archers are famous for training very painfully. In fact, many foreign archery players who came to Korea to learn archery are very surprised and go back. As a result of these training, there are events in which Korean athletes show tremendous performance at the Olympics. 

At the center of the archery target, there is a small camera to film the arrow flying. Korean players often break the camera with arrows. Once a player broke a camera at the Olympics and the broadcasting crew was very surprised. Even more surprising was the arrow the player fired the next time. The second arrow split the first in two. All but two of the 14 new Olympic archery records are set by Koreans, indicating how well Koreans shoot arrows.