North Korea at the 2016 Summer Olympics
| North Korea at the 2016 Summer Olympics |
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| IOC code | PRK | ||||||||
| NOC | Olympic Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea | ||||||||
| in Rio de Janeiro | |||||||||
| Competitors | 31 in 9 sports | ||||||||
| Flag bearer |
Choe Jon-wi (opening) Yun Won-chol (closing) |
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Medals Ranked 34th |
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| Summer Olympics appearances (overview) | |||||||||
North Korea (officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's tenth appearance at the Summer Olympics.
The Olympic Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea sent the nation's smallest ever delegation to the Games since 2000. A total of 31 athletes, 11 men and 20 women, were selected to the North Korean team across nine different sports, marking the fourth straight Games to feature more female athletes than male. North Korea did not register any of its boxers for the first time at the Games since 1972, but capped an eight-year Olympic comeback to artistic gymnastics, after missing out of London 2012 under a two-year suspension for age falsification.
Notable athletes on the North Korean roster featured weightlifting champions Om Yun-chol (men's 56 kg) and Rim Jong-sim (women's 75 kg), twins Kim Hye-gyong and Kim Hye-song in the women's marathon, pistol shooter and three-time Olympian Kim Jong-su, and former gymnastics champion Hong Un-jong in the women's vault. Meanwhile, weightlifting rookie Choe Jon-wi was selected by the committee to lead the North Korean delegation as the flag bearer in the opening ceremony.
North Korea left Rio de Janeiro with a total of seven medals (2 golds, 3 silver, and 2 bronze), signifying its most successful Olympic outcome based on the overall medal count, but falling short of the 12-medal target set by its sports commission. Half of North Korea's medal haul was distributed to the weightlifters, while the rest to the competitors in artistic gymnastics, shooting, and table tennis. Among the medalists were Rim Jong-sim, who repeated her golden feat from London four years earlier in a heavier category, and double world champion Ri Se-gwang, who obtained the nation's first ever gymnastics title by a male after 24 years.
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