South Korea's Olympic archery dynasty was just saved by a magnifying glass

The South Korean women’s archery team is arguably one of the greatest dynasties in Olympic history. Simply put, they don’t lose.

After winning yet another gold medal on Sunday, the team has won 10 straight Olympic gold medals in the team archery event. They’ve won every women’s team archery event since 1988. By the time the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles come around, they’ll have maintained the gold position on the podium for 40 years. No matter what way you slice it, that’s incredibly impressive.

That streak was a magnifying glass away from being over this year.

The gold medal archery match between South Korea and China was so close that it came down to a shoot-off between the two sides. And the shoot-off was so close that it came down to the final arrow. And the final arrow was so close to the border between a 9 and 10 (which is the score South Korea needed for gold), that it had to be determined by a magnifying glass.

A. MAGNIFYING GLASS. Unreal.

Here’s more from Rodger Sherman:

the gold medal archery match came down to a one-arrow shoot-off AND THEN it came down to an arrow so close to the border between a 9 and a 10 that someone had to come out and look at it with a magnifying glass. unreal drama pic.twitter.com/vzc7Pbal8D

— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) July 28, 2024

Apparently, the magnifying glass use is pretty commonplace. Could’ve fooled me. This seems pretty wild. You could cut that tension with a knife. SO much was riding on that spot.

South Korea’s final arrow turned out to be a 10 instead of a 9, which it was originally scored. So the dynasty was officially preserved.

But, man. That’s CLOSE.