BEIJING -- In late December, about a month and a half before the start of Beijing 2022, the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) announced a rather modest medal target: win one or two gold medals and finish around the top 15 in the medal race. That low target did not sit well with South Korean athletes, who voiced confidence they could exceed that number. Some close calls and unexpected challenges later, those athletes went out and met the goal right on the number. South Korea finished th

Chung Jae-won was born in the first year of the 21st century, a bundle of speed skating potential waiting to be tapped. The first glimpse of that talent came four years ago at PyeongChang 2018, when Chung, all of 16, earned the silver medal in the men’s team pursuit. A fuller realization occurred Saturday in Beijing, where Chung, still four months away from his 21st birthday, skated to the silver medal in the men’s mass start. At 7:47.18, Chung finished 0.07 bacK of the champion, B

Over his illustrious Olympic career spanning four competitions, South Korean speed skater Lee Seung-hoon has done nothing but win medals. And with the bronze medal in the men‘s mass start at Beijing 2022 on Saturday, Lee now has six medals for his career, more than any South Korean athlete in Winter Olympic history. With two golds, three silvers and one bronze, he is tied with two Summer Olympians for most medals by a South Korean: pistol shooter Jin Jong-oh and archer Kim Soo-nyung. &ld

South Korean bobsleigh pilot Won Yun-jong led his four-man team to an unexpected silver medal on the final day of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. With Beijing 2022 drawing to a conclusion Sunday, Won and his new-look four-man unit will try to repeat that performance from four years ago. The final two runs of the four-man bobsleigh competition will be the final event for South Korea in the Chinese capital. The race takes place at Yanqing National Sliding Centre in Yanqing, northwestern

BEIJING -- Beijing 2022 could be the final Winter Games for the speed skater Lee Seung-hoon, who shares a South Korean Winter Olympic record with five career medals. Lee will take his one last crack at a medal at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing on Saturday in the men's mass start. Lee is the defending champion of the event, which will see skaters take a start en masse, a la short track style. At 33, Lee has been on the downslope. It became evident early in these Olympic Games, when he

Of the five Winter Olympic medals she has won in short track speed skating, Choi Min-jeong sees the most recent one as her most valuable, because of the emotional roller-coaster ride she had leading up to that victory. Choi said she still had to pinch herself on Thursday, a day after capturing gold in the women's 1,500m in Beijing. "This gold medal means more to me than all the other medals I've won," Choi said at a press conference at the Main Media Centre for Beijing 2022 on Thur

Having collected two medals in the aftermath of a refereeing controversy at Beijing 2022, South Korean short track speed skater Hwang Dae-heon is staying above the fray. "I was very disappointed at the time, but it's now up to others to handle this going forward," Hwang said at a press conference at the Main Media Centre in Beijing Thursday, a day after the end of the short track competition. "I don't think I should be saying anything more at this point." Hwang was referri

South Korea was knocked out of the women's curling tournament at Beijing 2022 on Thursday following an 8-4 loss to Sweden in the final round-robin match. South Korea, which won a surprise silver medal in 2018, finished in eighth place in the 10-team round robin session, with only the top four advancing to the semifinals. At 4-5, South Korea, lead by skip Kim Eun-jung, had an identical record with the United States and China but ranked behind both countries, because it had lost to both teams e

The second Winter Olympics together for South Korea's Team Kim ended prematurely in women's curling on Thursday, but the curlers said missing out on the knockout stage in Beijing doesn't have to mean the end of their run together. Needing to beat Sweden in the final round-robin game to sneak into the semifinals, South Korea instead lost 8-4 at the National Aquatics Centre in the Chinese capital. Led by skip Kim Eun-jung, South Korea ended up in eighth place in the 10-team competition at 4-5.

BEIJING -- After helping South Korea to the silver medal in the women's 3,000m relay in short track speed skating at Beijing 2022 last Friday, Choi Min-jeong spoke about how she and her teammates "did the best we could under the circumstances." She didn't elaborate, but for those who have been following short track or the Beijing Winter Olympics, she didn't have to. And despite those challenges, South Korea still led all countries with five medals in short track here, with two golds an

BEIJING -- A pair of South Korean speed skating medalists will be back at the oval for a chance to win their second medal in Beijing on Friday. Kim Min-seok, the men's 1,500m bronze medalist from Feb. 8, and Cha Min-kyu, who won silver in the men's 500m four days later, will both compete in the 1,000m at the National Speed Skating Oval on Friday. In this past International Skating Union (ISU) World Cup season, Cha ranked 10th overall in the 1,000m standings, and Kim was 17th. But those ranking p

BEIJING -- South Korea collected a gold medal and a silver medal on the final day of short track speed skating at Beijing 2022 on Wednesday, a feel-good finishing touch to what began as a tumultuous event just over a week ago. Choi Min-jeong defended her gold medal in the women's 1,500m final, the very last short track race held at Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing. She beat out Arianna Fontana of Italy and Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands for her third medal in Beijing. Choi had earlier won

BEIJING -- Choi Min-jeong successfully defended her gold medal in the women’s 1,500m short track speed skating race in Beijing on Wednesday, earning her third medal in the Chinese capital in her final race here. Choi defeated Arianna Fontana of Italy for gold at Capital Indoor Stadium. Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands earned the bronze. This was South Korea’s second gold medal from short track at Beijing 2022 and its second gold medal overall, too. Choi had earlier won s

BEIJING -- South Korea grabbed silver in the men‘s 5,000m short track speed skating relay at Beijing 2022 on Wednesday for its first medal in the event since 2010. The quartet of Hwang Dae-heon, Kwak Yoon-gy, Park Jang-hyuk and Lee June-seo finished in second place behind Canada in the 45-lap race at Capital Indoor Stadium. Canada finished in 6:41.257, while South Korea ended in 6:41.679. Italy got the bronze in 6:43.431. South Korea led the way for most of the race before Canada charg

  Retired Korean Olympic figure skating champion Kim Yuna on Monday voiced concerns about violations of anti-doping rules that undermine fairness in sport in an apparent criticism of the international sport body’s decision to allow a Russian skater to continue to compete at the Beijing Olympics despite failing a pre-game drug test. “Athlete who violates doping cannot compete in the game. This principle must be observed without exception. All players’ efforts and dre