Korea collects 3 medals in short track as youngster goes double dipping

Kim Gil-li of Korea celebrates after winning the gold medal in the women's 1,500-meter short track speed skating event at the Winter Olympics at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Friday. Yonhap

MILAN — Korea claimed three medals in short track speed skating at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games on Friday, with Kim Gil-li becoming the country's first double gold medalist of the competition.

On the last day of short track races in Milan, Kim, 21, held off teammate Choi Min-jeong for the gold in the women's 1,500 meters at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan. Corinne Stoddard of the United States got the bronze behind the two Koreans.

Kim and Choi started the 14-lap race in the middle of the pack before speeding past multiple skaters over the late stretch. Choi briefly held the lead, but Kim sped past her on the 13th lap and crossed the line first.

Kim earlier won gold in the 3,000m relay and bronze in the 1,000m.

Choi came up just shy of becoming the first short tracker ever to win three consecutive gold medals in the same individual race. However, Choi still became the most decorated Olympian for Korea by pushing her career medal totals to seven.

Choi Min-jeong of Korea, left, congratulates teammate Kim Gil-li after Kim won the gold medal in the women's 1,500-meter short track speed skating event at the Winter Olympics at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Friday. Choi won the silver medal. Yonhap

Earlier in the evening, the quartet of Rim Jong-un, Lee Jeong-min, Lee June-seo and Hwang Dae-heon won the silver medal in the men's 5,000m relay, behind the Netherlands and ahead of Italy.

It was Hwang's late spurt as the anchor that pushed Korea into the silver medal position over the final corner.

Hwang, the 1,500m silver medalist, and Rim, the 1,000m bronze medalist, each finished the competition here with two medals apiece.

With these three medals, Korea has three gold medals, four silver medals and three bronze medals for the competition, with two more days remaining.

The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee had set three gold medals as the target — one more than the total from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Team Korea receives their silver medals for short track speed skating men's 5000 meters relay at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday. Yonhap

Also on Friday, Lee Seung-hun qualified for the final in the men's freestyle skiing halfpipe event at Livigno Snow Park in Livigno, 140 kilometers north of Milan, but did not end up performing due to a knee injury he picked up while training for the final.

Lee, 20, was the first Korean freestyle skier to qualify for a halfpipe final.