HOT SHOT: A member of South Korea’s women’s archery team releases an arrow
during the finals. The team won a gold medal in the event on August 10

A total of 19 countries and regions of Asia competed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, winning 86 gold, 54 silver and 72 bronze medals. Their gold medal haul accounted for 28.5 percent of the total 302 gold medals awarded.

Of the Asian medal winners, China, Japan and South Korea were the top three accounting for 73 gold medals, and 84.9 percent of all medals won by Asian countries.

The top three have traditionally been strong in sports, competing with each other in the Asian sporting arena. At this Olympics however, China outdid the competition, leaving them fighting for the second place in Asia.

South Korea sent 267 athletes to the Beijing Olympics to compete in 25 sports, winning an unprecedented 13 gold medals (one more than that in the Seoul Olympics in 1988), and placing them above Japan.

Taekwondo has been a steady source of gold medals for South Korea since it was officially admitted to the Olympic Games in 2000, and it claimed four gold medals in Beijing.

Archery is another field that has been dominated by Koreans since it was officially included in Olympics in 1972. At the Beijing Games, Korean athletes took both the men's and women's team gold medals, achieving the third successive Olympic victory for the men's team and a sixth successive victory for the women's team.

South Korea also won two gold medals in weightlifting and one in baseball.

The country's hottest sports star, Park Tae-hwan won the gold medal in the men's 400 meters freestyle, the first Olympic swimming gold medal in history for Korea. He also won a silver medal for men's 200 meters freestyle.