A rejuvenated Korean women’s volleyball team looks to redeem itself on the international stage.
The women’s national team, coached by Cesar Gonzalez, will take on host Turkiye in the first round of the FIVB Volleyball Nations League (VNL) 2023, which kicks off on June 1 at 2 a.m. in Antalya, Turkey.
South Korea crashed to the bottom of the table in the tournament last year, losing all 12 matches and failing to pick up a single point. The void left by the retirement of big names like Kim Yeon-kyung (Heungkuk Life) and Yang Hyo-jin (Hyundai E&C) after the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was too great.
This year’s roster is not much different from last year’s.
However, with Han Yoo-mi, who has served as a commentator for broadcasters and lovingly advised her juniors, as the national team coach and Kim Yeon-kyung as an advisor, the young players are back on the starting line with hopes that their morale and organization will be much better than last year.
Korea’s women’s volleyball team, which is determined to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, will compete in the VNL, followed by the Asian Championships in September, the Paris Olympic Qualifiers, and the Asian Games to boost its international competitiveness.
먹튀검증 Three of these tournaments, except for the Asian Games, have ranking points that determine the world ranking, and Korea needs to improve its 23rd place ranking as much as possible to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
This year’s women’s qualifying tournament for the Paris Olympics will be held in China, Japan, and Poland from September 16-24, and Korea will compete in Group C in Poland, along with eight other countries including Poland, Italy, the United States, and Thailand.
Twelve nations will compete at the Paris Games, with host France earning one spot and six additional spots going to the top two finishers in each group at this year’s qualifiers. The remaining five spots will be allocated based on world rankings on June 17, 2024.
The best-case scenario for Korea would be to qualify for the Olympics from the qualifiers, but it’s difficult because there are many countries ranked higher than us.
Therefore, improving our world ranking is a realistic alternative. To that end, the women’s volleyball team will compete in the Asian Championships (Sept. 2-10 in Thailand) before flying to Poland for the Olympic qualifiers and then on to Hangzhou for the Asian Games (Sept. 28-Oct. 7).
The team’s goal for the VNL is to win at least three games. In Week 1, South Korea will face Turkiye, Canada (June 2), the United States (June 3), and Thailand (June 4).
The team then travels to Brasilia, Brazil, to face Brazil (June 15), Japan (June 16), Croatia (June 17), and Germany (June 19) before returning to Suwon, South Korea, to close out the qualifiers with Week 3 matches against Bulgaria (June 27), Dominican Republic (June 29), China (July 1), and Poland (July 2).