Choi Min-jeong wins gold in women's 1,500m short track speed skating

Choi Min-jeong of South Korea celebrates as she crosses the finish line to win gold medal. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

By Baek Byung-yeul

Choi Min-jeong claimed Korea’s third gold medal of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics by winning the women’s 1,500-meter short track speed skating race, Saturday.

In the 13-and-half lap competition at the Gangneung Ice Arena, the 19-year-old clocked two minutes and 24.948 seconds to finish first among seven skaters.

With the win, Choi appeared to brush off her heartbreak in the 500m final, Feb. 13, where she was disqualified for interfering with other skaters. The gold medal is the host country’s 23rd title in Olympic history.

Choi ranked first overall in the 1,500m during the 2017-18 World Cup season after winning three of four races and has been considered the strongest gold medal contender.

In the race, Choi kept staying in the middle, but increased her speed in the final runs to finish first about 0.8 seconds faster than Li Jinyu of China who clocked 2:25.703. Kim Boutin of Canada came third with a time of 2:25.834.

Kim A-rang, who advanced to the finals after finishing first in the first semifinal with a time of 2:22.691, finished fourth with a time of 2:25.941.

Korea had three shots for the gold medal target but lost Shim Suk-hee in the preliminary event. Shim, who grew up in Gangneung where the short track event was held, failed to delight her home crowd as she slipped and fell in her heat. Shim was one of the gold-medal hopefuls in this event as she won the silver medal in the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

The short track event is one of the most popular winter sports in the host country. Showing its immense popularity, President Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook were at the ice rink to watch the races.

Korea has been a powerhouse country in this event, winning seven medals. Since the 1,500m event was first introduced at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, the host country has shared gold medals in the previous four Olympics with China. The winners were Ko Gi-hyun in 2002 and Jin Sun-yu in 2006, and Zhou Yang of China in 2010 and 2014.