Definitely one of the images of the Games. Totally unexpected, but already included in the Paris 2024 album. Six years after the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games, where the two Koreas marched as a single delegation behind the same flag, illustration on the planetary scale of the power of sport, four table tennis players from the two Asian neighbors posed together for a selfie.
The scene took place on Tuesday July 30, at the end of the mixed doubles of the Olympic table tennis tournament. Before their descent from the podium, the South Koreans Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin, bronze medalists, posed with the two North Koreans Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong, surprise guests of the final, where they gave way facing the Chinese pair.
With the medals awarded and the Chinese anthem played in the Paris Sud Arena, the table tennis players invited to the podium engaged in an exercise that has become a ritual since the start of the Paris 2024 Games: a selfie taken with a Samsung mobile phone, global partner of the IOC, loaned for the photo by a volunteer from the organizing committee. The photo is intended for OBS, the audiovisual branch of the IOC. It is among the new features designed for the Paris 2024 Games.
The medalists' selfie sequence is repeated on all sites. But it took on a very particular dimension, dare we say geopolitical, in the case of mixed doubles. At the origin of the image, the South Korean table tennis player later explained to the media: “I congratulated the two players from North Korea when they were presented on the podium as silver medalists.”
In Seoul, the scene is already viral. The television channels play it on repeat, delighted to be able to associate it with the values of Olympism. “This is the true spirit of the Olympic Games », insisted one of the commentators on the national channel.
In Paris, North Korea returns to the Olympic Games after a six-year interlude. It was absent from the Tokyo 2020 Games, a boycott justified by the Pyongyang regime for health reasons. COVID-19, North Korea wrote in its apology note. The IOC did not appreciate it, to the point of deciding to suspend the national Olympic committee and prohibit it from participating in the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.
Arriving in Paris in a small group, around twenty people including a dozen athletes, North Korea has already succeeded in its Games. Two silver medals, in diving and table tennis. The country didn't expect so much after only four days of competition.
At the Paris Sud Arena, the journey of the two table tennis players sent by Pyongyang surprised even the most knowledgeable about the reality of table tennis. For their first participation in the Olympic Games, Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong dismissed the Japanese gold medalists at Tokyo 2020, then beat the Hong Kong double, before giving in to the Chinese Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha, world number 1, but snatching two sets from them (4-2).
The two North Koreans were unknown, never leaving their country to compete in international competitions. They used the element of surprise, revealing at the last moment, often too late, the subtleties of an unorthodox game.
Reluctant for a long time to answer questions from journalists, they finally had to go through the media exercise during the medalists' press conference. In a few words, they explained that they train in North Korea, but maintain sporting relations with Chinese table tennis players.
« We prepared a lot for the Olympics, explained soberly Kim Kun Yong, 22, the female half of the North Korean mixed doubles. We had a good performance, but we still have some regrets. We will do better next time to win the gold medal. » The prospect of a new selfie.
