‘We were a top-four team in Tokyo,’ says Kim, but without her, South Korean women’s volleyball falls to 1-3 loss to U.S… Fourth consecutive Olympics now out of reach until Paris

The South Korean women’s volleyball team, led by head coach Cesar Hernández González, effectively failed to qualify for a fourth consecutive Olympic Games.

South Korea (ranked 36th in the world) fell 1-3 (25-20, 17-25, 19-25, 17-25) to the United States (ranked third in the world) in the fourth match of Group C at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Final Qualification on Tuesday (July 20) at the Atlas Arena in Łódź, Poland.

This was the fourth consecutive loss for Korea against Italy (0-3), Poland (1-3), and Germany (2-3). It was their fourth straight loss, leaving them with one point and fifth place in Group C out of eight teams. They are effectively out of the running for a spot in Paris. Even if the team earns all nine points available in their remaining three games, they won’t finish above Italy (4 wins, 12 points) and the United States (4 wins, 12 points).

A total of 12 countries will compete in Paris. Six spots will be decided in the final round of qualification. The top two teams in each of Pools A through C will qualify for the Olympics. The remaining six spots will be allocated according to the FIVB world rankings, with host France earning one spot and five spots going to the other teams.

South Korea took the first set and threatened the world’s No. 3 ranked team. Kang So-hwi had 13 points, Pyo Seung-ju 11, and Jung Ho-young 10 with four blocks. However, they were unable to overcome the USA’s strength and dropped the third set.

The Korean women’s volleyball team had qualified for the Olympic Games in three consecutive tournaments, from London 2012 to Tokyo 2020, and reached the quarterfinals in London 2012 and Tokyo 2020, proving to be a dark horse on the international scene. However, they failed to qualify for four consecutive tournaments. 토토사이트

Players such as Kim Yeon-kyung and Yang Hyo-jin, who were the core of the women’s team, retired from the national team and became the ‘neighborhood bookies’. The team went winless in the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) for the second consecutive year and suffered a 27-game losing streak. At the 2023 Asian Volleyball Championship in late August, they suffered a shock loss to underdog Vietnam, failing to reach the quarterfinals for the first time since the tournament’s inception in 1975.

The team has had a fruitful final qualifying campaign, despite being virtually eliminated from the Paris Olympics, but has won sets against No. 3 USA, No. 7 Poland and a full-set thriller against No. 12 Germany to earn a point.

The Koreans will face Colombia, ranked 22nd in the world, in the fifth match of Group C at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 22.