Korea Starts Games With Skiing Silver

Oh Jae-eun (Kookmin University), who held a “one-Korea” flag with North Korean ice hockey player Lee Geum Seong while athletes from both Koreas marched together at the opening ceremony of the 2007 Changchun Winter Asian Games, took a silver medal in giant slalom on the first day of alpine ski event.

In the women’s giant slalom race held at the Beidahu Ski Resort on January 31, Oh took second place with a combined time of 2 minutes, 09.64 seconds, 0.72 seconds behind Japan’s Emiko Kiyosawa (2:08.92). Kim Sun-Joo (JoongAng University) won a bronze medal with a time of 2:11.80.

At the 2003 Aomori Asian Winter Games, Oh was the only Korean player to win a bronze medal in the slalom. Kim Ye-seul (Korea National Sport University) came in sixth place with a time of 2:14.20.

Oh will challenge again for a medal in the slalom along with Kim Sun-soo and Kim Ye-seul on February 2.

Meanwhile, players from the two Koreas are struggling to garner medals at the beginning of the games.

As of January 31 afternoon, Korea only ranked third with two gold, seven silver and one bronze medals.

Korea is falling behind host country China, the top ranker with eight gold medals, and Japan, the winner of last game’s medal tally. Japan is currently second at the games with five gold medals.

In particular, Korea is struggling in short-track skating, in which Korea hopes to get more than six out of eight gold medals in total for the category. In the four races held by January 30, Chung Eun-joo (Seohyun High School) won Korea’s only gold medal in the women’s 1,500-meter event. China took first place in all of the others.

Though the men’s and women’s 1,000-meter, men’s 5,000-meter, and the women’s 3,000-meter relay have yet to be decided, it is very unclear whether Korea will win more gold medals under the current circumstance.

North Korea is even more serious. North Korea was ranked sixth (one silver and one bronze) at the Aomori event. However, this time, the North’s household name in the female short-track skating, Lee Hyang Mi, failed to move on to semifinals of her best event, the 500-meters. There are now concerns that North Korea might get no medals at all at the games as the players from the communist country is performing far more poorly in the speed skating events than those from China, Japan or South Korea.

kimsk@donga.com