The 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games torch will be extinguished after 16 days of competition with a closing ceremony on the 4th.
At this tournament, which was a prelude to the 2028 Los Angeles (LA) Olympics to be held two years later, the Korean athletes had mixed emotions.
The traditional medal field, which had been a 'good sport' in the past, was shaken, and ball sports that had fallen into a slump showed signs of revival.
In fencing, the pride of the Korean team was maintained by sweeping 4 gold medals, 4 silver medals, and 2 bronze medals.
'Ace' Oh Sang-wook swept the men's saber individual and team competitions and won two gold medals in this competition along with Cho Kwang-hee, Kim Hyo-bin (canoeing), Lee Geon-hyuk (shooting), and Lee Woo-seok (archery).
Star players who were expected to win gold before the opening of the competition included Oh Sang-wook, Ahn Se-young (badminton), Kim Joo-hyung (golf), Sang-hyuk Lee (Faker, e-sports), and Heo Mimi (judo), who lived up to their name by rising to the top of the podium.
Ahn Se-young became the first Asian Games badminton player to win the women's singles title twice in a row.
With this gold medal, Kim Joo-hyung has laid the foundation for a stable performance on the PGA Tour in the future.
In addition, Heo Mimi, a Korean-Japanese who is well-known as a descendant of independence activists, won the Asian Games held in Japan, making the gold medal even more special.
Ball sports that had been struggling on the international stage for a long time delivered golden results one after another in this tournament.
In particular, in basketball, the men's and women's national teams won the championship together for the first time in 12 years and swept two gold medals.
In 3-on-3 basketball, the men's team won a gold medal and the women's team won a bronze medal, taking three of the four gold medals in basketball.
Lee Hyun-joong, who is attempting to advance to the National Basketball Association (NBA), has established himself as the Korean men's basketball ace, and members of the women's basketball team, including Kang Yi-seul and Lee Hae-ran, have appeared on TV entertainment programs after returning to Korea.
Baseball and men's soccer achieved their fifth and fourth consecutive championships, respectively, and maintained their pride as the most popular professional sports.
Handball also won the women's division, regaining its position as a powerhouse in ball sports.
The 'basic sport' swimming and 'world's best' archery, which had attracted the most anticipation before the competition, left a mark of disappointment as their results fell short of expectations.
Swimming ended the competition with 1 gold medal, 6 silver medals, and 13 bronze medals.
Kim Young-beom emerged as the new face of Korean swimming by winning the men's 50m freestyle, but even star Hwang Sun-woo had to be satisfied with silver and bronze medals.
Korean swimming, which opened the 'Golden Age of Swimming' with six gold medals at the 2022 Hangzhou Games, has confirmed its homework.
Archery, the 'absolute best', also lost its status as 'the best in the world' with only 3 gold medals, 3 silver medals, and 3 bronze medals.
Lee Woo-seok won the recurve men's individual event and Kim Jong-ho won the compound men's individual event and added a gold medal in the recurve men's team event, but in the women's event, it was the first Asian Games 'no gold'.
It was a competition that confirmed that we are facing a strong challenge of global standardization, including India's advancement.
Table tennis (3 bronze medals), track and field (3 bronze medals), and wrestling (1 bronze medal) showed the worst performance ever.
Table tennis and track and field failed to win even a silver medal for the first time in Asian Games history, and wrestling received one bronze medal, down from two bronze medals at the 2023 Hangzhou Games.
The leading stars of the sport, such as Shin Yu-bin of table tennis and Sang-hyuk Woo of track and field, also had no choice but to bow their heads.
Other speculative sports other than wrestling also failed to escape the endless slump.
Taekwondo won three gold medals and four bronze medals, but two of them (Kyu-seong Yoon and Ha-eun Jeong) came from the Poomsae event, and only Song Da-bin (women's 67kg class) won a gold medal in sparring.
In judo, Heo Mimi won the only gold medal in the women's 57kg class and had to be satisfied with three silver medals and four bronze medals.
The result of producing a finalist for the first time in 12 years in men's boxing is a positive aspect.
The first ever gold medal (Kim Min-young) was won in Kurashi, a traditional Uzbek martial art similar to judo, and Lee Jun-seok also won a gold medal in tech ball, which was held as an official event in the Asian Games for the first time in this competition.
One of the features of this tournament was that the performances of Taegeuk warriors who grew up in multicultural families, such as Namadi Joel Jin and Viwesa Daniel Gassama in athletics, Lee Hae-ran and Eddie Daniel in basketball, Heejae Kanoa in surfing, and Mimi Heo in judo, all stood out.
The controversy over military service benefits for gold medalists that has arisen at every recent Asian Games has been no exception.
There are conflicting opinions, ranging from those calling for the abolition of military service benefits for Asian Games gold medalists, saying, "BTS also served in the military," to "related discussions should be cautious due to the characteristics of athletes who reach their prime in their 20s."
