With the 2024 Olympics continuing in Paris, there’s nothing better than immersing yourself in K-dramas with a plot tied to the Olympics, and there are plenty of them, including some that explore the Korea’s fascinating history through these games. It is important to remember that it was in 1988 that Seoul hosted the first Olympic Games in its history.
In the K-drama “Reply 1988”, it is a high school student, Deok-seon (played by Lee Hye-ri), who is chosen to be one of the pretty young women carrying the flags of the participating countries, in the name of Madagascar. Deok-seon’s hopes were dashed, however, when Madagascar withdrew from the Games, while the first episode ended with a satisfying ending, with Deok-seon getting his moment in the spotlight after Olympic organizers put him in charge of the Uganda team.
Although the sequel to “Reply 1988” is not about the Seoul Games, the popular series traces an important era in South Korean history by featuring archival footage of marathon runner Sohn Kee-chung, then 76 years old. , carrying the Olympic flame into the stadium to enthusiastic applause.
It was then in 1936 that Sohn became the first Korean to win a gold medal at the Olympics, except that at the time Korea was ruled by Japan so the marathoner had to compete under a name Japanese (Son Kitei) and under the Japanese flag. At the Seoul Olympics, Sohn triumphantly recalled what Korea had to overcome to get here, while South Korea used the occasion to show that it was no longer the poor country of the 1950s that many foreigners still imagined.
Certainly, it’s obvious that even in 1988, K-dramas weren’t must-see shows for anyone not residing in South Korea (or for the diaspora who rented grainy, pirated VHS tapes from the local Korean grocery store ), but the situation is much different today, with streaming services like Netflix and Hulu competing to grab the next new K-drama. So in honor of the Paris Olympics, we present to you 11 Korean series that cleverly use sport in their plots to demonstrate their characters’ perseverance and will to survive.
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All of Us Are Dead (Netflix)
High school students are left to fend for themselves in this zombie thriller after adults and their government fail to save them from a virus outbreak. While most films portray women as needing to be saved by men, in “All of Us Are Dead”, Ha-ri (played by Ha Seung-ri) is one of the calmer heroines and although her coach considered her a loser who is not good enough to become an Olympic champion, she proves herself by taking down zombies with her bow and arrows and literally saving human lives.
It must be recognized that the South Korean national team dominates this sport and since the Olympic debut of archery at the 1988 Games in Seoul, the South Korean women’s team has never lost at the Games; while the men’s team has won gold at seven of ten Olympic Games.
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Revenge of Others (Hulu)
You only need to see the excitement surrounding South Korean shooter Kim Yeji, 31, to understand that shooting is another sport in which the South Koreans excel and during the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Korean women’s team won the gold and silver medals in the 10 meter air pistol competition.
“The Glory” star Shin Ye-eun plays a competitive air pistol shooter who seeks to understand how her twin brother died. Chan-mi transfers to her high school and joins the school shooting team, and her skills provide the starting point for some of the series’ most memorable vignettes. Teaming up with classmate Soo-hyeon (All of Us Are Dead’s Park Solomon), the duo navigates a psychological mystery full of twists and turns that will keep viewers in suspense.
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W (Viki)
In this film, we see Lee Jong-suk as a teenage Olympic pistol shooting gold medalist who was initially considered a prodigy but is later accused of brutally murdering his entire family. We are therefore witnessing a scenario which sets up his return to glory and his wish to find the real assassin. For director Jung Dae-yoon, W is the story of a man and a woman “who discover their purpose while living in different dimensions in Seoul,” which is the best way to chronicle this series without revealing the plot.
This ingenious K-drama offers time travel and a parallel universe by adding a touch of manhwa (Korean comics). It features Han Hyo-joo, a surgeon who tries to make sense of the inexplicable as she strives to save her father and the man she loves, who lives in another dimension.
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Lovely Runner (Viki)
By winning the bronze medal in the men’s 400-meter freestyle event on July 27, 2024, Kim Woo-min became the second South Korean swimmer to win a swimming medal at the Olympics, the first being four-time medalist Park Tae-hwan, who makes an appearance in Lovely Runner. The latter indeed won the gold medal (400m freestyle) and the silver medal (200m freestyle) in 2008, as well as two silver medals in 2012.
Swimming takes center stage in this film, as before Sun-jae (Byeon Woo-seok) became a K-pop idol, he was a high school swimming star, competing against Park and although his injuries did not allow him to go to the Olympic Games, his physique and his talent allowed him to move towards the world of music. As for Kim Hye-yoon, she plays Sol, Sun-jae’s biggest fan, who travels back in time to save him from his early death. Eternal love and sacrifice are highlighted throughout this series, but above all it is the childlike love and alchemy between the two actors that provokes tears from viewers at every moment.
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twenty five twenty one (Netflix)
In this k-drama, we find Hee-do (Kim Tae-ri), an elite high school fencer, and Yi-jin (Nam Joo-hyuk), a former engineering student who had to drop out of college after the bankruptcy of his family. What’s beautiful about this K-drama is that instead of focusing on romance, “Twenty Five Twenty One” depicts the importance of female empowerment and friendship. Hee-do’s enemy is her fencing rival (played by Bona), whose excellence pushes her to improve, making this series a parable for young women who must first choose and invest for themselves.
If some viewers found the ending disappointing, it must be recognized that it is exquisite, sending the message that an important romance does not necessarily have to define life and it is also important to note that in real life life, Oh Sang-uk won the gold medal in the men’s individual saber at the Paris Games.
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Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo (Kocowa+)
In this sports-themed series, which features high-level university athletes, we look at the issue of body complexity and what defines a woman. While weightlifters like Bok-joo (Lee Sung-kyung) face ridicule for having “the build of a man,” rhythmic gymnasts are punished if they gain even a gram. With her friends, Bok-joo is satisfied with her strength, but when she meets a handsome doctor, she tries to lose weight to have a more classically feminine appearance. As for the doctor’s little brother (Nam Joo-hyuk), he is a childhood friend of Bok-joo and although we know that they will end up together, he is cruel to her, describing her as fat and resembling a pig.
Here we have a K-drama loosely inspired by weightlifter Jang Mi-ran, who won the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
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Fight for My Way (Kocowa+)
After the South Korean government made taekwondo the country’s national sport in 2018, Korea dominated the martial art, winning the most Olympic medals in the sport, which is why so many K-dramas incorporate taekwondo into the plot.
“Fight for My Way” tells the story of Dong-man (Park Seo-joon), a high school champion who seems on track to make the Korean national taekwondo team, but who, after being accused of having spoiled an important match, vowed never to participate in competitions again. That’s when he enters into a conflicted relationship with his childhood best friend, Ae-ra (Kim Ji-won, from Queen of Tears), whose dream of becoming a television news anchor has been compromised. Amidst all this teasing, the scriptwriters add relevant socio-political commentary regarding the humiliation of women, a woman’s right to raise her own children, and the burden a Korean wife has to endure from her stepmother. family.
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bloodhounds (Netflix)
This eight-episode K-drama features two boxers who meet as competitors and form a friendship that blossoms into one of the healthiest camaraderie in K-drama history. While Geon-woo (Woo Do-hwan) and Woo-jin (Lee Sang-yi) are bonded by their years spent apart in the Marines, their love of boxing and their hatred of those who steal from the underprivileged, they are enough young and dense for having no qualms about trying to dismantle the city’s most dangerous moneylender.
Despite the stabbings and knife fights which may cause some viewers to grimace, this series is imbued with gentleness, thanks to nuanced acting and intelligent writing, without forgetting a particularly successful ending. , with the arrival of an archer who kicks ass. By the way, South Korea has two athletes competing in boxing for the 2024 Paris Olympics and they are women.
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Racket Boys (Netflix)
Taking place far from Seoul, this K-drama has badminton as the main plot catalyst. We witness the story of a teenager, Hae-kang (Tang Joon-sang), who is forced to leave the city for the countryside, leaving his baseball teammates behind to compete in a heterogeneous badminton team, which is not necessarily fun for him but he nevertheless remains extremely competitive and confident. He comes to appreciate the eccentric villagers, as well as his motley crew of badminton players, and the drive to survive and do what’s right is explored in each episode, making Racket Boys much more than just a series about sports.
It is important to note that South Korean An Se-young, the best badminton player in the world, is participating in the Paris Olympic Games.
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Prison Playbook (Netflix)
Note that baseball is very popular in South Korea, the country having won the gold medal at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. “Prison Playbook” features Je-hyuk (Park Hae-soo from Squid Game), a impeccable but not very brilliant pitcher who accidentally kills a rapist and is sentenced to a year in prison. It’s there that he quickly learns that his superstar status makes him an easy target; which pushes him to become more reasonable during his incarceration, learning to deal with prison guards who demand money and other prisoners who view his body as a prize to be won. So it’s thanks to a childhood friend (played by Jung Kyung-ho from Hospital Playlist), who happens to work at the prison, that he gets by every day.
It’s true that it’s Je-hyuk’s story that dominates this series, but there are plenty of exciting subplots explored, including that of a drug addict who is repeatedly locked up instead of being treated for his addiction .
For information, baseball, which became an Olympic sport in 1992, is not at the Paris Games. Indeed, each host country decides whether or not baseball will be present and although Paris has skipped this sport, it will return during the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
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Like Flowers in Sand (Netflix)
A true mystery thriller, “Like Flowers in Sand” takes place in a small town where everyone is obsessed with ssireum, traditional Korean wrestling. Once a child prodigy in the sport, Baek-doo (Jang Dong-yoon) embodies the family failure who failed to live up to his potential and is now in his thirties. he years, he must decide whether to retire as he promised in a drunken state or whether to try again for a victory that continues to elude him. Meanwhile, people are getting killed in this sleepy town, while Baek-doo is further troubled by a woman (Lee Ju-myoung) who refuses to admit that they grew up together.
This series revolves around Jang’s sincere likability, creating a man-child character who is believable even in the most outlandish possibilities. Even though ssireum is not an Olympic sport, Koreans are big fans of wrestling and in this regard, Kwon Sim-ho became a national hero in 2000 when he became the only South Korean wrestler to win two Olympic medals. gold at the Olympic Games, twice in a row.
So, which Olympic-related k-drama will you watch?