President Lee Myung-bak said Monday he hopes South Korean athletes will achieve good results at the London Olympics, saying they have trained so hard they can expect higher medal chances.

“I am well aware that you have done your best to make preparations (for the London Olympics) and I am confident that you can expect good results,” Lee said during his biweekly radio address, encouraging the South Korean team.

“At a time when the world economy is hard and difficult, your fighting spirit would significantly cheer up our people,” Lee said.

South Korea’s 245 athletes will compete in 22 events for the London Olympics, which are set to run from July 27 to Aug. 12. The country hopes to win at least 10 gold medals and finish in the word’s top 10. It has ranked among the top 10 in five of the past six Summer Olympics.

London last staged the Olympics in 1948, and South Korea sent 51 athletes in seven sports to London that year for its first Olympics after the end of the Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945.

Lee said South Korea has become a “sports powerhouse” over the past 64 years.

Commenting on the nation’s participation in the 1948 London Olympics, Lee said, “In the more than 60 years since then, the status of sports in the Republic of Korea has seen a sea change.

“In deed as well as in name, the Republic of Korea became a sports powerhouse in the world, finishing seventh at the Beijing Summer Olympics and fifth at the Vancouver Winter Olympics,” Lee said.

Referring to the eight-hour time difference between Seoul and London, Lee said, “I will cheer for the Games every dawn without exception.” (Yonhap News)

Barbell diplomacy for Koreas

Weightlifters from North and South Korea made light of ongoing political tensions between their countries when they shared an Olympics training session on Sunday.

Both teams arrived at London’s ExCel venue at the same time after a scheduling mix-up, but South Korea moved to a different platform to accommodate its northern neighbor.

At one stage, a North Korean physiotherapist was seen offering advice to the rival team.

In 2004, the two Koreas, still officially at war and now at loggerheads over the North’s nuclear program, marched together at the Athens Olympics in a show of solidarity.

But the countries failed to agree on repeating the gesture in 2008. With relations now at their frostiest in years, there was no discussion on a joint march at the London 2012 opening ceremony. (AFP)