Short tracker shakes off injury, poor recent form to claim 4th career medal
Hwang Dae-heon of South Korea celebrates after winning the silver medal in the men's 1,500-meter short track speed skating event at the Winter Olympics at Milano Ice Skating Arena, Feb. 14. Yonhap
MILAN — Despite his strong Olympic credentials, short track speed skater Hwang Dae-heon arrived in Milan for this year's Winter Games flying under the radar.
But by the end of a chaotic Saturday night at Milano Ice Skating Arena, Hwang had his fourth career medal in his bag, a hard-earned silver in the men's 1,500 meters.
Hwang took the silver behind Jens van 't Wout of the Netherlands in the nine-skater final.
That Hwang even competed in the final came as a surprise, given the circumstances.
Hwang had been dealing with the effects of a knee injury sustained in November last year. He failed to win any individual race during the 2025-2026 International Skating Union Short Track World Tour season, collecting just one silver and one bronze in the process.
And once the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics began, Hwang had looked slow while getting eliminated in the quarterfinals of the men's 1,000 meters earlier in the week.
Hwang came into the 1,500m event as the defending champion, but he wasn't even considered the top contender in this distance on his own team. Rim Jong-un, who won the 1,000m bronze this week, carried South Korea's best medal hope, but Rim took a fall and crashed out of the quarterfinals instead.
Hwang and fellow South Korean Shin Dong-min both advanced to the final, and they were among the few who managed to stay on their feet through the end of this messy race. Shin took fourth place behind Roberts Kruzbergs of Latvia.
Hwang burst onto the scene at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games, winning silver in the 500m as an 18-year-old.
However, a string of off-ice issues began in 2019, when he accused then teammate Lim Hyo-jun of sexual harassment over what Lim claimed was a playful act during training.
Unable to train with the national team during their protracted legal battle, Lim switched allegiance to China and is now skating as Lin Xiaojun. However, he was found not guilty after making that decision, which then turned Hwang into a villain.
Competing under the shadow of that controversy, Hwang won the 1,500m gold medal and the 5,000m relay silver medal at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.
During the 2023-2024 season, though, he found himself in more hot water for frequently fouling teammate Park Ji-won at international events, leaving the latter severely injured.
Once again, Hwang didn't let the noise affect him and earned his ticket to Italy by finishing second in the notoriously difficult national team trials in April last year.
Hwang's penchant for physical play cost him in his first individual race in Milan, as he was penalized in the quarterfinals of the 1,000m earlier this week.
But he managed to stay out of trouble and stay on the ice Saturday, silencing his detractors in the process.
Hwang is the first South Korean male short tracker to compete at three consecutive Winter Olympics, and now he is also the first to win a medal at three Winter Games in a row.