When a ‘legally-blind’ IM-Dong-hyun became a double Olympic champion

South Korea’s IM-Dong Hyun garnered laurels in his career as he won the gold medals in the 2004 and 2008 editions of the Olympics in Athens and Beijing respectively. In the 2012 London Olympics, the archer went on to win the bronze medal.

In London, he made a world record in the men’s archery ranking round. With a score of 699, he broke his record in the 72-arrow mark by three points. Thereafter, he smashed the world record in the team event along with Kim Bubmin and Oh Jin-hyek. The trio registered a score of 2,087 and went past the record by 18 points.

Hyun, in the meantime, was legally blind and needed to be 10 times closer to an object than others to see it properly. He had a 20/200 vision on his left eye while his vision in the right eye was 20/100. But despite his troubles with vision, he did give up the ghost. Hyun did not wear glasses because it would make him more uncomfortable.

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IM-Dong-hyun’s many more records

Apart from his heroics in the Olympics, Hyun also showed his class in other tournaments around the world. In the 2002 Busan Asian Games, he won the gold medal in both the individual and team events. Four years later in Doha, Hyun finished on top of the podium in both the categories. Thereafter in 2010, he again won the team gold medal in Guangzhou.

Hyun was absolutely stupendous in the World Championships as he finished his career with 11 medals – eight golds, two silver and one bronze.

In the 2008 Lausanne World Cup final, he won the gold medal followed by silver and bronze medals in 2010 (Edinburgh) and 2017 (Rome), respectively.

He also won an individual gold in the 2011 edition of the Universiade in Shenzen. Prior to that, he won silver in the same tournament back in 2005.