Baseball/Softball - Team Republic of Korea

General
Republic of Korea won gold at the 2008 Olympic Games, which was the last time baseball featured on the Olympic programme. They beat the defending Olympic champions at the time, Cuba, 3-2 in the final in Beijing. In their other Olympic appearances, the Korean team claimed bronze at the 2000 Games in Sydney and were ranked in eighth place four years earlier in Atlanta.

In 2015 the Korean team held the Asian Games, Asian championship and WBSC Premier 12 titles concurrently, having thrashed the United States of America 8-0 in the final of the inaugural Premier 12 tournament [successor to the World Cup]. The team's only previous triumph at the World Cup came in 1982. At the 2019 Premier 12 tournament they defeated Australia, Canada, Cuba, the United States of America and Mexico, but lost to Japan in both the super round and the final to take home silver.

At continental level the Koreans won Asian Games gold in 2018, beating Japan 3-0 in the final in Jakarta to claim their fifth gold medal in seven appearances at the Games. But the 2020 Olympic hosts gained a measure of revenge at the 2019 Asian Championships, defeating Republic of Korea 11-3 in the super round. The Koreans went on to lose the bronze medal game in that tournament to the People's Republic of China. Historically, the Korean team have claimed seven Asian championship titles among a total of 26 podium finishes at the tournament since 1954. A bronze medal in 2017 is their most recent podium finish.