Thimphu, Bhutan, December 22, 2021: The Bhutan Olympic Committee has expressed its heartfelt gratitude to Park Young Sook for her dedication, time and effort in the development of archery in the country.
South Korean Park – better known as Sally – was hired as the national head coach for archery by Bhutan in 2018. Her three-and-a-half year journey came to an end this week as she completed her assignment which was initially intended to last only one year.
“Your contributions have made an immense difference in the lives of our archers and the management. We will never forget the achievement that we received under your wing,” posted the Bhutan Archery Federation on its website.
When Sally arrived in Bhutan in July 2018, there were only seven archers in the national squad. Under the guidance of the Los Angeles 1984 Olympian, the sport took off and her biggest success was in grooming female archer Karma.
Karma won the country’s first Olympic quota in any sport at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. She did it by sealing her berth at the 2019 Asian continental qualification tournament. Bhutan had sent archers previously to the Olympic Games via universality invitation from the IOC.
Before arriving in Bhutan, Sally had worked as head coach for Korea, Singapore, Italy and Malawi. She has been an international archery judge since 2007. She has almost 50 years of experience in the field of archery and will leave Bhutan with wonderful memories.
Bhutan will also miss her. Social media in Bhutan erupted in a wave of messages of appreciation and gratefulness for Sally for her all-round kind-heartedness. During her tenure she showed her generosity and philanthropic nature by making substantial donations in kind to other sports like boxing, as well as financial donations to the Government’s COVID-19 fund.
“We hope to see you again in the future,” the Federation added.
