The pre-Games goal of a top-10 finish fell short. Still, the team improved on the Beijing Games four years ago, when it placed 14th with two gold, five silver and two bronze medals, increasing both its gold-medal total and overall medal count.
South Korea’s snowboarding team, long considered a weak point in winter sports, won one gold, one silver and one bronze — the country’s best-ever result in snow events since it first competed in the Winter Olympics in 1960 at Squaw Valley. It was also the first time South Korea won two or more medals in snow events at a single Olympics. In snowboarding, South Korea ranked third by medals behind Japan (4 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze) and Austria (2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze).
Kim Sang-gyeom opened South Korea’s medal account by taking silver in the men’s parallel giant slalom on Feb. 8, becoming the nation’s 400th Olympic medalist across the Summer and Winter Games. Yoo Seung-eun then won a surprise bronze in the women’s big air, becoming South Korea’s first female Olympic medalist in snowboarding. Choi Ga-on captured gold in the women’s halfpipe, delivering South Korea’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in a snow event.
Short track speedskating produced seven medals — two gold, three silver and two bronze — improving on Beijing (2 gold, 3 silver). The women’s team returned to the top of the 3,000-meter relay for the first time in eight years, swept gold and silver in the 1,500, and added bronze in the 1,000. The men won two silver and one bronze but went without a gold for the first time in 12 years.
Speedskating, once a reliable medal sport for South Korea, ended the Games without a podium finish. South Korea won four medals in speedskating at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, but none this time. It was the first time since the 2002 Salt Lake City Games — 24 years ago — that South Korea failed to win an Olympic speedskating medal. Curling and sliding sports (bobsleigh, skeleton and luge) also finished without medals.
A major takeaway for South Korea was the rise of younger medalists. The average age of South Korean athletes who won individual medals at these Games was 24.1. Of the seven, three were teenagers.
Short track standout Kim Gil-li, born in 2004, was named the Games’ most valuable athlete among South Korean competitors. She won her first Olympic gold in the women’s 1,500 meters and powered the team to victory in the 3,000-meter relay, becoming South Korea’s only double gold medalist. She also took bronze in the women’s 1,000, reaching the podium three times.
Team youngest Lim Jong-eon, born in 2007, won bronze in the men’s 1,000 after running near the back for most of the race before surging on the final lap.
In snow events, 2008-born Choi Ga-on and Yoo Seung-eun set new milestones. Choi won gold after falling and suffering a serious injury in her first final run, then delivering a decisive performance on her third attempt. NBC called it one of the best moments of the first half of the Games and named Choi among “13 rising stars” of the Winter Olympics.
Short track star Choi Min-jeong ended what she called her third and final Olympics by setting a South Korean record for most Olympic medals across the Summer and Winter Games. She won gold in the women’s 3,000-meter relay and silver in the 1,500, bringing her career total to seven medals (4 gold, 3 silver) from Pyeongchang 2018, Beijing 2022 and Milan-Cortina 2026. That moved her past Jin Jong-oh (shooting), Kim Soo-nyung (archery) and Lee Seung-hoon (speedskating), who each had six. She also tied short track skater Jeon I-kyung (4 gold) for the most Winter Olympic gold medals by a South Korean athlete.
After the race, Choi announced her retirement from the Olympics. “This is my last Olympics. While preparing this season, my knee and ankle weren’t good, and mentally it was very hard,” she said. “From the start to the end of the competition, I kept thinking it was my last Olympics. Even after it ended, all I could think was, ‘This is really the last.’ I don’t think you’ll see me at the Olympics anymore.”
She said she has not decided whether to retire from competition entirely. “Retiring from my athletic career isn’t something I can decide alone. It’s something I have to coordinate with my team,” she said. “I only thought about the Olympics. It’s something to think about while I rest for a while.”
On why she chose to step away from the Olympics, she said, “It happened naturally. This season I had a lot of places that hurt, and it was difficult in many ways to raise my condition. I set a lot of records on the Olympic stage. I think I did everything I could.”
◆Sports diplomacy gains
South Korea also recorded gains in sports diplomacy. Kim Jae-yeol, president of the International Skating Union and an International Olympic Committee member, was elected to the IOC Executive Board. He became the second South Korean to serve as an IOC Executive Board member after the late Kim Un-yong, a former IOC vice president. The Executive Board oversees the Olympic host-city selection process and decides major policies and issues.
Bobsleigh figure Won Yoon-jong finished first in the IOC Athletes’ Commission election, which is decided by a vote of athletes. He became South Korea’s third IOC athlete member after Moon Dae-sung (taekwondo), elected at the 2008 Beijing Games, and Yoo Seung-min (table tennis), elected at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and now president of the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee. Won is the first South Korean athlete member from a Winter Olympic sport.
With Won’s election, South Korea now has two IOC members. Only 20 countries have two or more IOC members.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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