At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Korean baseball dominated the world.
It was the first gold medal ever and is remembered as the best moment in Korean baseball history.
After that, if baseball disappeared at the Olympics, and if the Tokyo Olympics were held two months later, Olympic baseball would revive after 13 years.
The goal of Korean baseball is to win the gold medal again.
However, the road to the summit is much more difficult than it was 13 years ago.
It is because of the speed revolution of pitchers who have swept the world baseball for more than 10 years, but only skipped Korean baseball.
Since 2010, major league pitchers' balls have improved year by year, and this year, for the first time ever, the average speed of the ball has exceeded 150 km/h.
It's not just the United States.
Since 2014, Japanese pitchers' ball has been accelerating tremendously.
Over the past seven years, the pace of increase has been greater in Japan than in the United States.
On the other hand, only Korea is walking alone.
As a result, our professional baseball pitchers' fast ball this season is more than 7km slower than the majors and more than 2km slower than Japan.
You might be wondering, how many kilometers on average is that great?
Looking at the performance of batters, the power of speed is revealed.
In the United States, while pitchers have continued to accelerate over the past decade, hitters' performance on the contrary has continued to deteriorate.
And in 2021, major league hitters' batting average is the lowest in history.
The same goes for Japan.
The hitters' batting average has declined since 2014, when pitchers got faster, and this year, like the U.S., is at an all-time low.
In other words, in the United States and Japan, pitchers are overwhelming hitters even with an ever-increasing pace.
Among the starting pitchers who can compete in this Olympics in our professional baseball, the fastest pitcher is Lee Eui-ri, a Kia rookie with an average speed of 146 km/h.
Among the pitchers in professional baseball, the 19-year-old new pitcher is the fastest. Isn't it a little weird?
The situation abroad is different.
Naturally, training in the pro will speed it up.
The fastest starting pitcher in the Majors, Jacob DeGrom, has gained 9 kilometers per hour in the last five years.
In Japanese professional baseball, there are nine starting pitchers faster than Eui-ri Lee.
Of these, pitcher Yamamoto of Orix, the fastest pitcher, has increased an average of 4km since his debut in 2017, reaching an average speed of 151.9km/h this year.
There is no starting pitcher in our professional baseball that has accelerated 4 kilometers over the past four years.
Why did the speed revolution that swept the world baseball sway only Korea?
Beginning around 2010, in the United States, training methods began to be developed to increase the pace of pitchers by applying the achievements of sports science.
This training method, which was even tested in practice, had an influence from other countries such as Japan, and pitchers around the world made the ball faster.
However, this modern training method has not been introduced in earnest in Korea.
Of course, the ability to throw accurately in every nook and cranny is as important as speed.
But so far, there is no proven training method that will dramatically improve your abilities at the pro level.
You can increase your speed through training, but it is really difficult to gain control like Ryu Hyun-jin through training.
Of course, Korean baseball has achieved good results in international competitions by adding extra-technical strengths such as teamwork and goal awareness.
Even at the Tokyo Olympics, the gap in speed can be overcome.
But what is certain is that the gap with the world is wider than in Beijing 13 years ago, and we can close the gap only if we follow the path of modernization and science that other countries first went on.
(Video coverage: Kim Se-kyung·Yang Hyun-cheol, video editing: Oh Young-taek, CG: Seo Seung-hyun)