Kim Cheol-Yong’s is in the middle of his third campaign as coach of the Korean national women’s Volleyball team and will undertake his second Olympic Games campaign, having previously been in charge from 1993 to 1996 and 1999 to 2000.

Having started at a period when the eighth-ranked team in the world was going through a rebuilding phase, Cheol-Yong, 50, is starting to work miracles with the young Korean side. He led them to the final round of the 2003 World Grand Prix, to ninth spot at the 2003 World Cup and a second place, and an Olympic qualification spot, at the World Olympic Qualification tournament in Japan earlier this year.

At Athens it won’t be an easy task, once again, having to shape a squad renowned for its tenacity and spirit but lacking in genuine height. However, the stalwart of Korean Volleyball has the pedigree, particularly in the Korean domestic league where he led his club side LG Caltex-Oil to nine consecutive Super League titles and a run of 82 successive games undefeated.

In 2000 he took a young squad to the Sydney Olympics, where they finished eighth, and he was consequently replaced but his work with Korea’s dominant club side was too good to ignore, hence another term at the helm.