[BEIJING OLYMPICS] S. Korea going for inaugural Olympic title in short track's mixed team relay

BEIJING -- South Korea has been the most successful country in Olympic short track speed skating history with 24 gold medals, and it will look to add to that total in a relay event making its debut at the Beijing Winter Games on Saturday.

Following Friday's opening ceremony, the first medals of Beijing 2022 will be awarded Saturday. South Korea's first shot at a medal will come in the mixed team relay at Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing.

The inaugural relay race is 2,000 meters long, or 18 laps. Each team will have two female and two male skaters. Teams must follow a specific order, with the two female skaters starting the race, followed by their male teammates, and so forth. Each skater will cover 2 1/2 laps on their first leg and two laps on their second leg.

South Korea features multiple Olympic medalists, including the 2018 double Olympic champion Choi Min-jeong on the women's side and the 2018 men's 500m silver medalist Hwang Dae-heon.

Should South Korea reach the final, the race is scheduled to begin at 9:26 p.m. local time, or 10:26 p.m. in Seoul.

The very first event for South Korea will come in the women's cross-country skiing, with the 7.5km+7.5km skiathlon scheduled to start at 3:45 p.m. at Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre in Zhangjiakou, some 180 kilometers northwest of Beijing.

Lee Chae-won will be making her sixth Winter Olympic appearance, tying the record for most Olympics, Winter or Summer, by a South Korean athlete. The 40-year-old will be joined by Lee Eui-jin and Han Dasom. (Yonhap)