With the opening of the 2022 24th Beijing Winter Olympics approaching in ten days, the ’31 men’ from Gangwon, who have won the Taegeuk mark, vowed to promote.
The Korean delegation participating in the Beijing Olympics held a ceremony at the Olympic Hall in Seoul Olympic Park on the 25th and made up their minds to achieve the goal. The goal of the Korean delegation is to win 1 or 2 gold medals and rank 15th in the overall ranking.
At the Beijing Winter Olympics, which will be held from the 4th to the 20th of next month, 5,000 athletes from 90 countries around the world will compete in 7 sports (ice skating, skiing, bobsled skeleton, curling, luge, ice hockey, and biathlon). The Korean national team will have 63 athletes competing in 6 sports.
Among them, in the winter sports ‘Mecca’ Gangwon-do, 31 athletes, about half of the entire Korean squad, competed in five sports (ice skating, skiing, bobsled skeleton, curling, luge) with the Taegeuk mark, leading the Korean medal hunt. The event in which the largest number of athletes participate is the bobsled skeleton, in which 11 athletes from the province compete.
In the men’s skeleton, ‘Emperor’ Seong-bin Yun (Gangwon Provincial Office) and ‘Shinseong’ Seung-gi Jeong (Catholic Kwandong University) participate, and in the women’s skeleton, Eun-ji Kim (Gangwon BS Federation). In bobsleigh, ‘pilot’ Yun-jong Won (hereinafter referred to as Gangwon Provincial Government) and Seok Young-jin, Kim Jin-soo, Kim Dong-hyun, Jang Ki-geon, Kim Hyeong-geun (Gangwon BS Federation), and Kim Tae-yang (from Jeongseon, Korea National Sports University) challenge each other to compete in 4-person and 2-person competitions. In the women’s division, monobop (single-seater) Kim Yu-ran (Gangwon Provincial Government) will traverse the track. In the luge, another sledding event, Jo Jung-myung (Gangwon Provincial Government) secures the right to compete and is preparing for the third Olympic stage.
In the skiing event, nine provincial and related athletes traverse the snowy field. In the alpine skiing event, Jeong Dong-hyeon (from Goseong, High1) will participate, while in the alpine snowboarding event, Lee Sang-ho (from Jeongseon) and Kim Sang-gyeom (from Pyeongchang) will be participating in the alpine snowboarding event. In the cross country, Chaewon Lee (Pyeongchang County Office), Minwoo Kim, Jongwon Jeong (Gangneung Jungang High School, hereafter Gyeonggi Provincial Government Office), Euijin Lee (Sangji Gwanryeong High School), and Handasom, who have competed in the Olympic Games 6 times, will participate in the men’s and women’s events respectively. In the Nordic Complex, Je-eon Park (Pyeongchang-gun Office) will perform on the Olympic stage. Lee Sang-ho, who is challenging for the Olympic medal for the second time in a row, said in an interview with this magazine that day, “I am preparing for the competition with the goal of winning a gold medal.”
In curling, which has rapidly emerged as a ‘national interest’ event at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Kim Eun-jung, Kim Kyung-ae, Kim Cho-hee, Kim Seon-young, and Kim Young-mi of ‘Team Kim (Gangneung City Hall)’ compete in a women’s four-member game to recreate the legend.
In the ice skating event, a total of five Gangwon warriors, including the Gangwon Provincial Government Ice Team ‘three men’, race on the ice. In the women’s mass start, Pyeongchang silver medalists Bo-reum Kim and Ji-woo Park are responsible for the women’s mass start, and in the men’s speed skating 500m, expectant Kim Jun-ho is responsible for the sprint. Park Seong-hyeon (from Hwacheon, Korea National University) participates in the men’s 1500m. Park Seong-hyeon had a vacancy among the contestants in this event, so he dramatically gained a spot before the start of the event.
Hwang Dae-heon (Gangwon Provincial Office), who graduated from the Korea National University of Sports and joined this year, is about to take on the challenge in the ‘filial event’ short track. Hwang Dae-heon is a male short track ‘signboard’ runner and is the only provincial athlete to compete in this event and aim for a medal. Meanwhile, Jo In-ho, coach of the Gangwon-do Cheongsam Bobsleigh Skeleton Team, and Im Im-seop, coach of the Gangneung City Hall curling team, will host the Beijing Winter Olympics as national team coaches. Seunghwan Jeong [email protected]