By Yoon Chul
Staff Reporter
The Vancouver Winter Olympics wrapped up Monday (KST) with South Korea finishing seventh in the medal count with six gold, six silver and two bronze medals.
The country is emerging as a winter sports powerhouse not only because of the number of medals it managed to earn, but also its improvement in various events that sometimes go under the radar here.
South Korean sledders proved their worth against the world's elite.
The four-man bobsled team helmed by Kang Kwang-bae advanced to the final round by placing 19th in the preliminaries.
The team will make continuous efforts to improve upon the unexpected performance.
"If we were going to be satisfied simply by a performance like this, we wouldn't have begun to bobsled at all," brakeman Kim Dong-hyun said.
Korea also fared well in the luge and skeleton events. Lee Yong finished 36th in the luge and Cho In-ho came in 23rd in the skeleton.
Their efforts represent a step forward for the country in the events. Training without proper support or facilities, the athletes had to make do with what they had. At a World Cup event, they went as far as asking another country's coach for advice.
Fortunately, Gangwon Province started supporting them last year.
On the ice, South Korea has shown it is a force to be reckoned with. But the same can't be said about the snow. In particular, in extreme sports such as freestyle skiing and halfpipe, the country has not shown a strong presence.
But Seo Jung-hwa and Kim Ho-jun proved that Korea can hang with the world's best in such events.
Seo, who has trained by herself with very little support from the government, just missed advancing to the final round of freestyle skiing by a mere 0.12 seconds.
In the halfpipe, Kim Ho-jun showed his skills to the world en route to finishing a surprising 12th.
Korean ski jumpers were athletes of interest in Korea after a movie about the sport, "Take Off," became popular.
They had generated good results at the Universiade, but not at the Olympics.
"The interest we got now is good but we worry about failing to grab a medal," they told The Korea Times before traveling to Vancouver.
Three of the four members of the national ski jump team competed at the Games, and Choi Heung-chul and Kim Hyun-ki advanced to the final round in both the normal and large hill competitions.
Korea, which only has four national team members, didn't compete in the team competition as Kang Chil-goo failed to qualify. Meanwhile, Choi Yong-jik competed with an injured ankle.
The jumpers' circumstance has improved after securing sponsorship from High1, but they are still dealing with adverse conditions while trying to become true contenders.
While it's true that these athletes didn't add to Korea's medal count, they are helping the country cement itself as a strong competitor in winter sports.