Shooter Lee Bo-na taking last shot at Olympic glory in Paris
Korean shooter Lee Bo-na will turn 43 on July 22, four days before the start of what will be her third Olympic Games in Paris.
Some 23 years after her international career began, Lee feels Paris will likely be her last Olympics. And she wants to savor every moment of the process that will get her there.
“If the team needs me and if I can stay competitive, then perhaps I can think about another Olympics. For now, though, I think this will be my last one,” Lee said during a break from her opening training session at Jincheon National Training Center in Jincheon, some 85 kilometers south of Seoul, on Monday. It was held as part of the national team media day in the buildup to Paris 2024.
Among 14 Korean shooters bound for the French capital in July, Lee, who competes in trap, is the only one with an Olympic medal. She won silver in the women’s double trap and bronze in the women’s trap at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Lee remains the only Korean shooter 안전 with an Olympic medal in a shotgun event, with 15 other shooting medals having all come in rifle or pistol disciplines.
Lee also represented Korea in 2008 in Beijing. And now she is back for another go this summer, 20 years after her Olympic debut.
“I know there are some older shooters still active, but I am usually the oldest at a competition these days,” Lee said with a wry smile. “That’s when it hits me that I’ve been doing this a long time.”