Head of Olympic Team Talks of Korea`s Success

Park Seong-in, who led the Korean national team at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, had a hard time psychologically eight years ago in Salt Lake City, Utah.

At the time, Korea earned just four medals (two gold and two silver) in short track. Park filed a protest against the International Skating Union and filed a complaint with the Court for Arbitration for Sport after Kim Dong-sung lost a gold medal due to Apolo Anton Ohno’s exaggerated action.

Park told reporters yesterday at the Hyatt Hotel in Vancouver, “Korea has become a true skating powerhouse since we won gold medals in all three skating events. I`m very pleased as leader of the national team.”

“After suffering from the so-called Kim Dong-sung incident in Salt Lake City, I spent a year to devise the Vancouver project,” he said. “As a result, we won gold medals not only in short track but also in figure skating and speed skating.”

"What we do from now on is more important," he said. “We need to help speed skating gold medalists Mo Tae-bum, Lee Sang-hwa and Lee Seung-hoon keep their momentum until the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. In addition, we should nurture promising young skaters.”

creating@donga.com