South Korean volleyball's pride has hit rock bottom. After the women's team finished fourth, the men's team was also eliminated in the quarterfinals, leaving the country without a medal for the second consecutive Asian Games following the 2023 Hangzhou edition.
The men's team, led by head coach Isanaye Ramirez of Brazil, lost 2-3 (23-25, 25-18, 25-21, 20-25, 12-15) to Iran in the men's volleyball quarterfinals of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on the 29th at the Okazaki Central General Park Gymnasium in Japan.
With the defeat, Korean volleyball finished without a medal for the second straight Games, after the 2023 Hangzhou event, where the women placed fifth and the men seventh.
It was the third time Korean women's volleyball has failed to win a medal at the Asian Games since the sport was adopted as an official event at the 1962 Jakarta Games. The men's team, which had claimed medals in 14 consecutive Games from Bangkok in 1966 through Jakarta-Palembang in 2018, has now gone medal-less in two straight editions.
Iran, the defending champion chasing a fourth consecutive Asian Games title, again proved too strong. Korea has not beaten Iran since a 3-1 win in the second match of the Asian Championship quarterfinal playoffs in August 2015. Heo Soo-bong of Hyundai Capital scored 22 points and Lim Dong-hyuk of Korean Air added 18, but the team ran out of stamina in the closing stages.
Korea had to play without Lim Sung-jin of the Armed Forces Athletic Corps, who injured his ankle in the third group-stage match against China, forcing the team to struggle with managing its attackers' workload. Although the men's team failed to reach the semifinals, it found reason for hope, losing narrowly to China, the Hangzhou runner-up, in a full five-set match and holding its own against Iran.
