The quartet of Choi Min-jeong and Kim Gil-li (both Seongnam City Hall), Shim Suk-hee (Seoul City Hall) and Lee So-yeon (Sports Toto) won semifinal heat 2 on Feb. 15 (Korea time) at the Milan Ice Skating Arena in Italy, finishing in 4:04.72.
South Korea ran second behind Canada early before Choi moved inside with 10 laps remaining to take the lead. With six laps left, Lee was passed by China and the team dropped to second.
Shim held second, then Choi attacked the inside again with three laps to go to regain first. Anchor Kim pulled away from the chasing pack to cross the line first.
South Korea has won Olympic gold in the women’s 3,000-meter relay six times — Lillehammer 1994, Nagano 1998, Salt Lake City 2002, Turin 2006, Sochi 2014 and Pyeongchang 2018 — and took silver at the 2022 Beijing Games.
The medal race is scheduled for the 19th. South Korea will face Canada, the Netherlands and Italy. With the fastest semifinal time, South Korea was assigned Lane 1.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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