The main group of South Korean athletes who competed at the Winter Olympics in Italy returned home Tuesday after meeting the country's gold medal target.
South Korea finished the Milan-Cortina Winter Games, which concluded Sunday, with three gold medals, four silver medals and three bronze medals, good for 13th place in the medal race. South Korea had set out to win at least one more gold medal than the two it had taken home from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and accomplished that mission thanks to a late push by its short track speed skaters.
And those short trackers led the delegation that arrived at Incheon International Airport, just west of Seoul, on Tuesday after combining to win seven of South Korea's 10 medals.
Kim Gil-li was South Korea's only double gold medalist, as she captured the women's 1,500-meter title and anchored the country to the women's 3,000m relay gold medal. She added a bronze in the 1,000m and finished as the first South Korean short tracker to win at least three medals in an Olympic debut in 12 years. Kim was voted by South Korean journalists covering the competition as the MVP of the delegation.
Another short track speed skater, Choi Min-jeong, became the most decorated South Korean Olympic athlete with seven career medals. She won the 3,000m relay gold and the 1,500m silver medal behind Kim.
The men's short track team won silver in the 5,000m relay, while two relay members also won individual medals -- with Hwang Dae-heon taking silver in the 1,500m and Rim Jong-un grabbing bronze in the 1,000m.
South Korea's three other medals came from snowboard -- Choi Gaon's gold in the women's halfpipe, Kim Sang-kyum's silver in the men's parallel giant slalom, and Yu Seung-eun's bronze in the women's big air. The snowboarders returned home earlier this month after their competition ended.
Korea Sport & Olympic Committee President Ryu Seung-min flew back with the short trackers, alongside Korea Skating Union President Lee Soo-kyung, who was the country's chef de mission during the Olympics. (Yonhap)
