Team Korea cruises to No. 4 at PyeongChang
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In the top photo, South Korea’s Choi Min-jeong celebrates after coming first in her PyeongChang Winter Games women’s 1,500m short track speed skating final at the Gangneung Ice Arena, Saturday. In the bottom photo, Yun Sung-bin raises the country’s flag after winning the men’s skeleton at the Olympic Sliding Center, the same day. / Korea Times photos by Shim Hyun-chul
By Nam Hyun-woo
Team Korea is cruising to its goal of placing No. 4 overall on the medals table at the PyeongChang Winter Games, with the Games past the halfway point Sunday.
Before the Games kicked off, the Korean delegation set their goal at the Winter Games on their home soil at eight gold medals, four silver and eight bronze.
Leading the campaign were athletes in ice sports. On Saturday, short track skater Choi Min-jeong won the country’s third gold medal at the Games in the women’s 1,500m.
“So many people have supported me. I have the weight of the public’s expectations on my shoulders. But I have always thought that it’s something that I have to overcome,” Choi told reporters after the race. “Winning the gold medal was the biggest dream, I can’t put it into words.”
In the 13-and-a-half lap competition at the Gangneung Ice Arena, the 19-year-old clocked 2:24.948 seconds in a landslide victory.
A day earlier, Yun Sung-bin gave his home fans a Lunar New Year’s Day present by winning the men’s skeleton, after displaying flawless runs. Yun, who posted 3:20.55 after four races, was almost 1.7 seconds ahead of runner up Nikita Tregubov of the Olympic Athletes from Russia.
Yun became the first Asian athlete to win an Olympic medal in skeleton. After finishing first, Yun dropped to his knees to kiss the track and expressed his gratitude to the home crowd.
“Getting a gold medal in any Olympics is good but getting the gold here in my home country is a very great honor, much bigger than that,” Yun said.
Adding short track skater Lim Hyo-jun’s first gold in the men’s 1,500m and two bronzes from long track skater Kim Min-seok in the men’s 1,500m and short tracker Seo Yi-ra in the men’s 1,000m, all medals for Korea have came from ice sports.
The Koreans will take on the latter half of the PyeongChang Games with hopes of more medals from blade sports.
The No. 1 turf is short track speed skating. In the men’s races, the 500m and 5,000m relay remain, while the 1,000m and 3,000m relay are waiting for women. With champions Choi and Lim both starring, Korea is pinning hopes on those events, to win at least three gold medals from the four.
And there is long track skating. The women’s 500m world record holder and two times Olympic champion Lee Sang-hwa is ready to extend her reign in front of the home crowd.
To focus on her specialty, Lee gave up her 1,000m event. For the 28-year-old, the PyeongChang Games is her fourth and could be the last.
Her biggest rival is Nao Kodaira of Japan. In the 500 meters, the Japanese finished 12th in 2010 and 5th in 2014 Games, but has been advancing since last year, winning a World Single Distances Championships in Gangneung and World Sprint Championships in Canada. Kodiara has already bagged a silver at the PyeongChang Games in the 1,000m.
In men’s speed skating, Lee Seung-hoon is also a prospect for Korea. The three-time Olympic medalist is standing as the favorite in mass start, and will possibly collect an additional medal in the team pursuit.
In the two-man bobsleigh, the tandem of Won Yun-jong and Seo Young-woo is hoping to copy Yun’s skeleton glory.
They were No. 1 in the 2015-16 World Cup Rankings, but went on a downturn in recent years, slipping to No. 3 in 2016-17 and No. 21 in 2017-18.
However, they are still on the lips of watchers as gold medal favorites, given they are racing on their home track.
Hope is also with the female curlers, who are showing a better-than-expected performance. So far in their round robin matches, the Koreans have defeated world No. 1 Canada, No. 2 Switzerland and No. 4 Great Britain.