Journalist
Park Jong-ho
jjongho0918@ajunews.com
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Choi Ga On wins Olympic gold in women’s halfpipe, South Korea’s first snow-sport title Choi Ga On of Sehwa High School won South Korea’s first Olympic gold medal in a snow sport. Choi scored 90.25 on her third run in the women’s halfpipe final at Livigno Snow Park in Italy to take gold at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. She beat top contender Chloe Kim, who scored 88.00. The medal was South Korea’s first gold of these Winter Games and the nation’s first Winter Olympic gold in skiing events, the report said. It also moved up the youngest gold-medalist mark set by Kim (17 years, 10 months) by seven months. In halfpipe, riders perform aerial tricks while moving up and down a U-shaped slope, with judges awarding points. South Korea has kept pushing in the event since Kim Ho Jun became the country’s first Olympic entrant at the 2010 Vancouver Games. Choi has been at the center of that effort. Influenced by a father who snowboarded as a hobby, she started the sport after learning figure skating while watching Kim Yuna. In January 2023, she became the youngest winner in the pipe event at the X Games at age 14 years, two months. That December, she won her first International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) Snowboard World Cup, drawing attention as a prodigy. Her career was not always smooth. In early 2024, she suffered a spinal fracture at a World Cup event in Laax, Switzerland, and underwent surgery. She missed the Gangwon Winter Youth Olympics that year and spent more than a year focused on rehabilitation. She returned to Laax last year and won bronze, signaling her comeback. She carried that form into the Olympic season, including back-to-back World Cup wins in December in Zhangjiakou, China, and at Copper Mountain in the United States. In her Olympic debut, Choi placed sixth in qualifying to become the first South Korean halfpipe rider to reach an Olympic final, then rode to gold. She struggled early in the final. On her first run, she fell hard after her second jump when her landing caught on the lip of the pipe. She fell again on the first jump of her second run. At that point, she had only 10 points and stood ninth among the 12 finalists. Choi stayed composed and delivered a comeback on her third run, starting without hesitation and landing five aerial moves cleanly. She was the only rider to score above 90 on the day. After finishing, she cried as she rode down the slope. “I’m so happy my first Olympic medal is a gold. I can’t believe it,” Choi said in an interview after winning. “It’s also an honor to win the first gold for the South Korean team.” 2026-02-13 07:12:00 -
South Korea’s Choi Ga On Wins Women’s Snowboard Halfpipe Gold at Milan Olympics Choi Ga On of South Korea won the country’s first Winter Olympic gold medal in a snow sport. Choi, a student at Sehwa High School, scored 90.25 to take first in the women’s snowboard halfpipe final at Livigno Snow Park in Italy. She beat American Chloe Kim, who scored 88.00. The gold was also South Korea’s first for the national team at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, and the first Olympic gold for South Korean skiing. Choi also became the youngest Olympic champion in the event. Born in November 2008, she won at 17 years, 3 months, breaking the mark of 17 years, 10 months set by Kim at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. Choi struggled in her first two runs. In the first, she crashed hard on landing and fell upside down. She stayed down for a time and medical staff came onto the course. After a delay, she got up and rode down on her own. Her first-run score was 10. Before her second run, Choi was initially listed as DNS (Did Not Start) but reversed the decision and dropped in. She appeared affected by the earlier impact, with an unsteady landing on her first aerial move, then stopped the attempt and rode out. Her second run was ruled DNI (Does Not Improve). Kim, the favorite, posted 88.00 on her first run, raising the possibility of an unprecedented third straight Olympic title in a snowboard event. Choi responded with a clean third run, starting without hesitation and landing five aerial moves to become the first rider in the final to score 90 or higher. After finishing the run, Choi was seen in tears as she rode down. Kim, who did not complete her second run, tried to regain the lead on her third but fell mid-run and settled for silver. Mitsuki Ono of Japan took bronze with 85.00. South Korea’s previous Olympic medals in skiing included Lee Sang Ho’s silver in men’s snowboard alpine at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, Kim Sang Gyeom’s silver in men’s snowboard alpine at these Games, and Yoo Seung Eun’s bronze in women’s snowboard big air. Choi, 18, is the first South Korean to win gold in a snow sport. 2026-02-13 05:39:00 -
South Korea’s Cha Jun-hwan to stick with planned free skate at Milan Olympics South Korea’s top men’s figure skater, Cha Jun-hwan (Seoul City Hall), said he will focus on polishing his performance rather than raising difficulty ahead of the free skate. After official practice on Thursday (Korea time) at the Milan Ice Skating Arena in Italy, Cha told reporters the gap to the third-place skater is large and “it seems like there needs to be a way to increase difficulty to win a medal,” but he plans to “perform the elements I’ve been doing so far” and concentrate on improving execution. Cha placed sixth in the short program on Tuesday with 92.72 points (50.08 technical, 42.64 program components). He trails third-place Adam Siao Him Fa of France by 9.83 points. Early in the 2025-26 season, Cha attempted three quadruple jumps in the free skate, including a combination, but later reduced his layout to two solo quads. That left open the option of adding higher-difficulty elements to push into medal position, but he said he would make the same choice he made at the Harbin Asian Winter Games. At Harbin, Cha scored 93.09 in the short program, 9.72 points behind Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama (103.81). He did not raise difficulty to chase the deficit and instead focused on delivering his planned program. Cha landed two quadruple jumps and won after Kagiyama made repeated mistakes. Cha said he is aiming for a medal with the same approach in Milan. Cha also said he was disappointed by his short-program score. Although he delivered a near-clean skate, he received an under-rotation call on his triple Axel and earned only Level 3 on the step sequence. “When I checked the score, it was lower than I expected, so I was disappointed,” he said. “If the technical score was low, I could accept it, but I was especially disappointed that the program component score came out low.” He said he thought a lot after the short program and decided to enjoy the process rather than focus on the result. “I didn’t get the score I wanted, but in the moment I think I showed what I wanted to show. The fact that I did my best doesn’t change, so I’m satisfied,” he said. On ice conditions that some athletes have criticized at these Olympics, Cha said the ice feels “a bit soft” even for figure skaters and that the moisture is a concern. “If there’s a lot of moisture, it can freeze as it is and create bumps on the surface,” he said, adding he would need to keep that in mind in competition. Cha is scheduled to skate in the men’s free skate at 3 a.m. Friday (Korea time). * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-02-13 02:12:00 -
Yoon Shin-yi Finishes 13th in Moguls Qualifier, Misses Final at Milan-Cortina Olympics Yoon Shin-yi of Bongpyeong High School failed to reach the final in women’s moguls in freestyle skiing at the 2026 Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Olympics. Competing Tuesday (Korea time) at Aerial Mogul Park in Livigno, Italy, Yoon scored 64.46 points in the second qualifying round, placing 13th among 20 skiers. In the first qualifier a day earlier, she scored 59.40 points to finish 21st out of 30, missing the top-10 cutoff for an automatic berth in the final. Her best score across the two qualifiers was 64.46, leaving her 24th overall and out of the final. Moguls is a freestyle skiing event in which athletes race down a course covered with bumps about 1 meter high, then perform aerial tricks off jumps. In this competition, the top 10 from the first qualifier advanced directly to the final, while the remaining 20 skiers competed in the second qualifier for the remaining spots. Yoon improved her score in the second round but did not crack the top 10. Yoon is scheduled to compete in dual moguls on Feb. 14, an event in which two skiers race head-to-head. In men’s moguls, Jung Dae-yoon of the Seoul Ski Association and Lee Yoon-seung of Kyung Hee University are set to compete in the second qualifier at 6 p.m. on Feb. 12. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-02-11 22:27:00 -
Short Track Skater Lim Jong-eon Says Olympic Debut Helped Him Find His Rhythm Short track skater Lim Jong-eon of Goyang City Hall, who made his Olympic debut a day earlier, said he gained confidence after getting a feel for the competition. Lim took part in the national team’s official training session on Feb. 11 at the Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy. In his first Olympics, Lim advanced smoothly from the 1,000-meter preliminaries a day earlier to reach the quarterfinals. Reflecting on that race, he said, “It’s been a while since I competed, and I was very nervous, so I’m a bit tired,” adding, “I went in thinking I’d skate like at other international events, but the atmosphere here is definitely different, so I was really shaking.” On his approach, Lim said, “Since it was my first race, I tried to use a new strategy,” and added, “I tried to stay active near the front.” “As I raced, I got a sense of what I need to do and how much I should do,” he said. Lim’s quarterfinal heat will include Lin Xiaojun — known in South Korea as Lim Hyo-jun — along with Italy’s Shupekenhouser, the Netherlands’ Jens Vansbaut and Latvia’s Reinis Berzins. Lim said he has been looking forward to racing Lin. “We often run into each other at the athletes’ village cafeteria and say hello,” he said. “When we ended up in the same group, Lin told me, ‘Don’t be nervous, and let’s do well.’” Still, Lim said he is not focused on any one rival. “Lin is there, but there are also a lot of strong skaters from the Netherlands and Italy,” he said. “Rather than one specific skater, I think I need to manage the race while keeping several skaters in mind.” Lim also pointed to the ice conditions. “It felt a bit softer than during practice, so there have been a lot of mistakes,” he said. “I think I’ll need to skate differently in the race.” * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-02-11 22:18:00 -
Snowboarder Choi Ga On reaches women’s halfpipe final at Milan-Cortina Olympics; Lee Na Yoon withdraws hurt South Korean snowboarder Choi Ga On (Sehwa High School) advanced to the women’s halfpipe final at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Choi scored 82.25 points in qualifying Tuesday at Livigno Snow Park in Italy, placing sixth among 24 riders. The top 12 advanced. Qualifying consisted of two runs, with each athlete’s best score counting. Halfpipe is judged on aerial tricks performed on a sloped, semicylindrical course. Choi posted her 82.25 in the first run, opening with a switch backside 720 and linking multiple tricks. She tried a higher-difficulty second run, attempting a three-rotation move after a jump of up to 4.2 meters, but lost balance on the final landing, leaving her first-run score as her qualifier. Choi has emerged as a top prospect. She won the pipe event at the X Games in 2023 and has three wins on the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) Snowboard World Cup this 2025-2026 season, leading the women’s halfpipe standings. To medal, she will likely have to beat Chloe Kim of the United States, the Olympic champion in 2018 in Pyeongchang and 2022 in Beijing. A gold in this event would give Kim three straight Olympic titles. Kim led qualifying with 90.25 points. Despite a shoulder injury that limited her World Cup season, she landed high-difficulty tricks including a three-rotation move and a McTwist, the only rider to score in the 90s. Sara Shimizu of Japan was second with 87.5, followed by Maddie Mastro of the United States (86), Riese Kudo of Japan (84.75) and Cai Xuetong of China (83). Another South Korean entrant, Lee Na Yoon (Kyung Hee University), scored 35 in her first run after losing balance on a landing. She felt knee pain during the attempt and did not start the second run, finishing 22nd and missing the final. The final is set for 3:30 a.m. Friday (Korean time) at Livigno Snow Park. Unlike qualifying, the final will be contested over three runs, with the best score determining the standings. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-02-11 20:48:00 -
Short-track skater Kim Gil Li says arm injury won’t affect Olympic races South Korea short-track speed skater Kim Gil Li (Seongnam City Hall), who was hurt in a collision during a race, said the injury will not affect her ability to compete. Kim trained Tuesday (Korean time) at the Milan Ice Skating Arena, the short-track venue for the Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Olympics. Speaking to reporters afterward, she said medical tests the day before found nothing wrong. “I took medicine and I’m fine,” she said. She said she feared her arm might have been broken because the impact was hard. “There was pain for a moment, but it went away, and it won’t affect me competing going forward,” she said. Kim fell Monday in the mixed 2,000-meter relay semifinals after colliding with U.S. skater Corinne Stoddard. Kim said she was trying to pass while accelerating when Stoddard fell coming out of a corner. “My speed was too fast, so I couldn’t avoid it in time,” she said. She added that short track has many variables and that such incidents can happen, saying she has experienced it several times in her career. Kim also said she was upset after an appeal was not accepted. “I went inside and cried a lot, but the coaches and the older teammates comforted me, and that helped a lot,” she said. South Korea’s mixed relay ended in the semifinals, but Kim said she is preparing for the women’s 500 meters on Feb. 12 with a medal as her goal. “The start-lane draw isn’t favorable, but I’ll solve things one by one and move up,” she said. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-02-11 20:15:00 -
U.S. Short Track Skater Stoddard Apologizes After Collision With South Korea’s Kim Gil Li U.S. short track skater Corinne Stoddard has issued a public apology after colliding with South Korea’s Kim Gil Li (Seongnam City Hall) at the 2026 Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Olympics. Stoddard wrote on Instagram on Tuesday (Korea time) that she wanted to apologize publicly to her teammates for her performance the day before and to any other athletes affected by what happened. “What happened yesterday was not intentional,” she said, adding that she wanted a strong result but “seems to have had an issue with my condition.” She said she would identify the cause through training and return to her previous form. On Monday, Stoddard slipped and fell during the second semifinal heat of the mixed 2,000-meter relay at the Milan Ice Skating Arena. Kim, who was closely chasing the U.S. team, could not avoid her and crashed head-on, also falling. South Korea finished third in the heat and failed to advance to the final, which takes the top two teams. After the race, some fans left critical comments on Stoddard’s Instagram account, and she disabled comments. A day later, she posted her apology, including a message to Kim. Stoddard fell multiple times, including in the mixed 2,000-meter relay. Afterward, U.S. short track skaters Andrew Heo and Braden Kim, both Korean American, defended her, saying the ice was too soft. Stoddard said she would take a break from social media. “There are a lot of things being said about yesterday’s race, but I’m not going to keep those words in my head,” she wrote, thanking supporters and asking them to “watch a little longer.” Stoddard has faced repeated misfortune in Olympic seasons. At the 2022 Beijing Games, she suffered a serious injury, breaking her nose, and later struggled with insomnia and considered retirement. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-02-11 19:12:00 -
Korean Sport and Olympic Committee Sends Youth Ski, Snowboard Team to Milan-Cortina Games The Korean Sport and Olympic Committee said Tuesday it has sent a youth athletes delegation to the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics to give promising ski and snowboard athletes a chance to experience the Games firsthand. The delegation will be in Milan, Livigno and other locations from Tuesday through Feb. 17 for a weeklong schedule of on-site activities. Plans include watching competitions in skiing and snowboarding and visiting the Olympic Village, a meal-support center and Korea House, allowing the athletes to see the operating environment and how South Korea’s team is supported. The group includes six top athletes selected by the Korea Ski and Snowboard Association and the PyeongChang 2018 Legacy Foundation. All are skiing and snowboarding prospects taking part in a program to develop future national team members. KSOC President Yoo Seung-min said he hopes the visit will be “an important opportunity” for the athletes to build goals and a sense of responsibility by experiencing the Olympics in person.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-02-11 16:54:28 -
Short-track skater Choi Min-jung vows to rebound after South Korea crash exit in mixed relay South Korea were eliminated in the short-track 2,000-meter mixed relay semifinals at the 2026 Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Olympics after a midrace collision, and skater Choi Min-jung said she will focus on the remaining events. The South Korean team were knocked out Monday (Korea time) at the Milan Ice Skating Arena when Kim Gil-li collided with a U.S. skater and fell, dropping the team to third. Only the top two advanced to the final. Choi, who skates for Seongnam City Hall, quickly tagged Kim and continued the race, but the gap was too large to close. Coach Kim Min-jung immediately appealed to officials for an advance, but it was denied. Officials ruled South Korea were running third at the time of the incident. After the race, Choi told reporters, “I’ll prepare for the next race.” Describing the crash, she said South Korea were in third when “the U.S. skater who was in first fell,” and Kim “couldn’t avoid it and got caught up and fell.” Choi added, “If we had been in second, we could have gotten an advance,” and said the team share responsibility: “If we do well, we all did well, and if we don’t, we all didn’t. Today, I think we didn’t do well.” She called it the kind of situation that can happen in short track, saying luck was not on their side, but “another day it can be good.” “Now that the first event is over, I’ll do better in the next events,” she said. Choi said the team wanted momentum from the opening event but fell short, adding they vowed to do better and that she will “do my best through the remaining events.” In the 500-meter preliminaries held earlier, Choi said she was nervous in her first event but advanced to the quarterfinals. “Now the competition really begins, so I’ll show a good performance going forward,” she said. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-02-10 23:09:33