Table Tennis - Team Republic of Korea

General
The Republic of Korea are competing at their fourth Olympic Games, and secured their ticket to Tokyo as one of nine teams that qualified via the 2020 World Olympic Qualification Tournament in Gondomar, Portugal.

The Korean team won bronze at the inaugural Olympic team competition in Beijing in 2008, beating Japan in the final match of the bronze medal play-offs. Since then they have not managed to return to the podium, most recently losing to Singapore in the quarterfinals in 2016. The Koreans had led 2-1 in Rio before the Singaporean team won the last two singles matches. At London 2012 they were beaten in the semifinals by the Chinese team, before defeat to Singapore in the bronze medal match.

In the latter half of the 20th century, the Republic of Korea were regular world championship podium finishers, winning 11 medals including a lone gold in 1973. This century they have been less consistent, claiming three bronze medals between 2000 and 2016. At the 2018 World Championships they were to face DPR Korea in the quarterfinals, but rather than compete against each other the two teams agreed to form a Unified Korea team, and went on to be defeated by Japan in the semifinals. Previously, a Unified Korea team won gold at the world championships in 1991.

The Koreans are regular medal contenders at continental level. However, facing tough competition, they have not finished in the top two at the Asian Games or Asian championships since 2005. At the 2019 Asian Championships they were beaten in the quarterfinals by Singapore, a year after claiming bronze at the 2018 Asian Games following a semifinal defeat to the Chinese team.