S. Korean short trackers target gold medals on Sunday

The South Korean national short track team for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics are gearing up to dye this Sunday in gold color.

South Korea is scheduled to hunt for gold medals in the women’s 3,000-meter and the men’s 500-meter relays this Sunday, the 10th day of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. It has a large gap in the Olympic results between the two events, which are scheduled on the same date at this Olympics. In the women’s 3,000-meter relay, South Korea won six gold medals out of all the eight Olympic Games while the men’s 500-meter event gave the country only one gold. Chae Ji-hoon in Lillehammer, 1994, is the only South Korean Olympic gold medalist in the men’s 500 meter.

Aiming for gold at three consecutive Olympic Games, the South Korean women short trackers, ranking 2nd this season, had a troubled time following Shim Suk-hee’s suspension and Kim Ji-yoo’s injury right before the games. Nevertheless, they secured the second place in the Group 2 during the semi-final of the women’s 3,000m relay as the team’s top skater Choi Min-jeong outran her competitors on an outer lane with just half a lap to go. 　

The key to the final round lies in staying careful about Chinese skaters, ranking 4th. In the women’s 3,000-meter relay with a total of 27 laps to go, athletes take turns for around every 1.5 laps. The best strategy not to be involved in any controversial refereeing is to minimize contact with Chinese players. The remainder of finalists is also a tough competition, the Netherlands led by Suzanne Schulting, ranking 1st, and Canada with Kim Boutin, in 3rd place.

Hwang Dae-heon and Lee June-seo will race for a gold in 28 years. 1,500-meter champion Hwang is one of the most likely gold medalists in the men’s 500-meter event given that he won silver four years ago in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.


Hong-Gu Kang windup@donga.com