Korean figure skater Choi Da-bin participated in ladies single skating short program on Wednesday at Gangneung Ice Arena and earned a total score of 67.77, a season’s best, securing a ticket to Friday’s free skating.In a performance of two minutes and 40 seconds, Choi skated to “Papa, Can You Hear Me?” from 1983 movie “Yentl.” Started with a clean triple lutz and triple toe loop combination, Choi successfully continued with change foot combination spin and flying camel spin. After finishing with

PYEONGCHANG, Gangwon Province -- For Yun Sung-bin, his gold medal in the skeleton at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics is not the end of the story. The 23-year-old South Korean slider said he can show more after the Olympics, aiming to take another gold in the World Championships scheduled to be held next year in Doha, Qatar, as a “top priority.” “My previous goal was to win the race in the Olympics, and now I’ve done it,” said Yun, who became the first athlete from Asia to ever win a medal i

The torch for the 2018 Paralympics will be ignited simultaneously in five areas of Korea on March 2 and carried to PyeongChang in a relay run ending on the opening day of the events on March 9, where they will be unified.The five torches are to be lit at Saebyeol Oreum on Jeju Island, Anyang in Gyeonggi Province, Nonsan in South Chungcheong Province, Gochang in North Jeolla Province and Cheongdo in North Gyeongsang Province. The day is set as the auspicious day of the first full moon, the 15th d

Korea's teenage figure skating star Choi Da-bin on Wednesday performed a flawless short program to pull off a personal high and rank eighth at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics ladies' singles figure skating.She scored 67.77 points on the first day of the ladies' competition at the Gangneung Ice Arena in Gangneung, breaking her 10 day-old best of 65.73 set at the team event of the PyeongChang Olympics on Feb. 11.Her eighth place in the short program is the highest ranking ever achieved by a Korean

PYEONGCHANG, Gangwon Province -- South Korea's four-man bobsleigh team said Wednesday it will aim to collect a medal at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.The team comprised of Won Yun-jong, Seo Young-woo, Kim Dong-hyun and Jun Jung-lin completed their first two official training sessions at Olympic Sliding Centre in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province. The South Koreans finished 14th among 29 teams in their first training run with a time of 49.78 seconds but later marked the fourth best time at 49.53.Wo

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea -- North Korea has ended its ninth Winter Olympics appearance here in South Korea without a medal.Short track speed skater Jong Kwang-bom crashed out of heats in the men's 500 meters on Tuesday as the final athlete among 22 from the North to compete during the PyeongChang Winter Games.North Korea sent 12 women's ice hockey players to form a unified team with 23 South Koreans. It had two athletes each in figure skating and short track, and three apiece in alpine skiing an

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea -- South Korean skeleton slider Yun Sung-bin said Wednesday when he won his historic gold medal at the PyeongChang Winter Olympic last week, he felt sorry for his idol Martins Dukurs, who failed to stand on the podium after finishing fourth.Yun became the first Asian to win a medal in sledding sports at the Winter Olympics after claiming gold in the men's skeleton last Friday. At Olympic Sliding Center, he was the fastest one to cross the finish line in all four heats, w

GANGNEUNG, South Korea -- The South Korean female curling team clinched first place in round robin on Wednesday with a win over the Olympic Athletes from Russia at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. The home team won for the sixth straight time as it defeated the OAR 11-2. South Korea, with seven wins and just one loss so far, had already qualified to move on to the semifinal as of Tuesday. South Korea will wrap up the round robin session against Denmark later Wednesday. The South Korean female cu

Korea will try to snatch medals in three short track speed skating competitions on Wednesday.Male short track skaters Lim Hyo-jun, Kim Do-kyoum, Hwang Dae-heon and Kwak Yoon-gy will compete in the 5,000m relay finals at Gangneung Ice Arena. In the a heat event on Feb. 13, the four skaters clocked 6:34.510, beating the previous Olympic record of 6:36.605, held by China.The country will also compete in the quarterfinals of the men's 500m and women's 1,000m on the same day. The semifinals and the f

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea -- South Korea's lone Nordic combined skier Park Je-un said Tuesday his first Winter Olympic Games have been a learning experience. Park ended his Olympic campaign by finishing last among 47 contestants who completed the individual Gundersen large hill/10-kilometer event at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, with a time of 31 minutes, 28.8 seconds. He was 7:36.3 behind gold medalist Johannes Rydzek of Germany"I will never forget this Olympics," he said. "It's just a pity t

GANGNEUNG, South Korea -- Canadian-born South Korean hockey forward Brock Radunske dedicated his first Olympic goal on Tuesday to the partisan fans who supported the team.Radunske, the first foreign native to be naturalized on the men's hockey team here, scored South Korea's first goal in its 5-2 loss to Finland in the qualification playoff match of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. With several thousand fans packing Gangneung Hockey Center, South Korea was down 3-0 when Radunske put the home tea

GANGNEUNG, Gangwon Province -- South Korean short tracker Shim Suk-hee, one of the most anticipated athletes of Team Korea at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, on Tuesday finally won her first medal, after falling short of the podium in previous events.The South Korean team won the women's 3,000 meter relay.The 21-year-old skater raked in three medals at the 2014 Winter Games as a high school student, emerging as a prominent medal hopeful in PyeongChang. In Sochi, Shim captured gold in the 3,000

South Korea won the gold medal in the women’s 3,000 meters short track speedskating relay finals on Tuesday. Shim Suk-hee, Choi Min-jeong, Kim A-lang and Kim Ye-jin competed in the women’s 3,000 finals against the Chinese, Italian and Canadian teams at Gangneung Ice Arena in Gangneung, one of two cities in Gangwon Province hosting the Winter Games. (Yonhap)Choi, already a gold medalist in the women’s 1,500 meters on Saturday, finished the race in 4:07.361, closely trailed by China’s Qu Chunyu. T

South Korea has secured its place in the final four of women’s curling at the PyeongChang Winter Games, beating the United States 9-6 on Tuesday. The team of four Kims -- Kim Yeong-mi, Kim Seon-yeong, Kim Kyeong-ae and Kim Eun-jung -- will next play in the semifinals Friday, against a yet to be determined opponent. The team has won six matches and lost one, to Japan, in the round-robin preliminaries.Tuesday’s win at the Gangneung Curling Centre marks the first time South Korea has made the semif

Speedskater Lee Sang-wha uploaded a picture with archrival and friend Nao Kodaira on Monday via her Instagram account, a few hours after capturing the silver in the women’s 500 meters. The post instantly garnered a torrent of likes and support messages from fans.Min Yu-ra and Alexander Gamelin (Yonhap)After certain wardrobe malfunctions put ice dancer Min Yu-ra in an awkward situation during her pairs routine with partner Alexander Gamelin on Feb. 10, Instagram users came to vigorously cheer her