the games have begun!

12 of korea's olympians participating in the beijing games.

another reason why i love korea? shiz get done real quick here.

e.g.: i bought a tv last fall but waited nine months to plug it in. satisfying my crush on korean swimmer park tae-hwan made getting cable installed for the olympics a priority. but, i didn't actually make the call until thursday afternoon. however, korea encourages my procrastination! although i called c&m (cable and more!) at 2:30 pm on thursday, the technician arrived before noon on friday. try waiting 2+ weeks in amurrica.

over the past 24-hours i've been reintroduced to the geriatric joke better known as larry king and other cnn programming. russia invades georgia but john edwards's 2006 extra-marital affair is the lead story... (c'mon now, did you ever doubt gross golden boy's potential for philandering?) i've also realized that bbc world has about 6 hours of content for a 24-hour day. i need to find me some good korean dramas.

back to the olympics. i slept through much of what appeared to be an impressive (and really long) opening ceremonies. for its part, soko's 389-person contingent will compete in 25 events: (modern pentathlon, basketball, wrestling, badminton, boxing, shooting, cycling, swimming, equestrian, baseball, archery, weightlifting, sailing, judo, athletics, rowing, gymnastics, football, canoe, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, fencing, hockey and handball).

south korea usually makes the top 10 in the medal count. the adopted homeland is hoping for 10 golds in beijing. the following are among their best prospects:

park tae-hwan, aka "marine boy" is korea's best hope for its first swimming medal. the 18-year-old already holds a world championship title, three asian games golds and asian records in the 200- and 400m freestyle events. the prospect of a 175cm korean swimmer beating caucasian beefcake makes me happy.

jang mi-ran is a big girl and participates in the heaviest division for women (+75kg). she's a three-time world champion who won the silver medal in athens. in april she set an unofficial world record in the "clean and jerk". i don't know what that means. president lee myung-bak thinks she has a beautiful smile. that's nice.

park sung-hyun and yoon ok-hee are just two of korea's archery illuminati. soko's team has won every archery gold medal since the '84 games. the ladies hold every world record in the olympic standard, "outdoor recurve discipline" (i don't know what that means, either). yoon told reuters, "our sensitive fingertips, descended from our ancestors, and our spiritual strength and willingness to fight until the very end... they are the secrets." perhaps this also helps female korean dominance with a wide variety of weapons. kim chan-mi came within 1 point of china's du li in last year's asian shooting championships, while nam hyun-hee hopes to medal in women's fencing. finally, hwang kyeong-seon is hoping to continue korea's dominance in its national sport, taekwondo, by improving upon her bronze in athens.

re: dudes, choi min-ho is a men's judo star who is called the "little giant". in athens he sustained an injury and was disappointed with a bronze medal finish. yang tae-young should have one the individual all-around gold in athens. a judging mistake undervalued his start value on the horizontal bars. the extra 0.1 point would have given him the edge over the winner, who beat him by just 0.049 points. 20-year-old wang ki-chun hopes to medal in his first olympics. he won the 2007 world championships in judo last year. jung ji-hyun, or mr. cauliflower ear, won a gold medal in wrestling at the games in athens. and finally, son seong-cheol is soko's only diver. the national olympic training center in seoul does not have diving boards, so home dude trains in a student swimming arena swarming with kids enjoying their summer break. it's unlikely that he'll medal, but he's cute and we have the same family name.

good luck, and make sure to bring home more medals than the japanese! do it for dokdo!