"World's Strongest" Korean Short Track Kicks Off with Mixed Relay on the 10th

High Expectations for the Perfect Chemistry of Choi Minjeong and Kim Gilli

Korean short track speed skating will begin its race for gold medals at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics with the mixed 2,000m relay on the 10th. A total of nine gold medals are at stake in short track at this Games.

Korean short track is the undisputed best in the world. Since short track was first adopted as an official Winter Olympic event at the 1992 Albertville Games, Korea has claimed 26 gold medals. This is far ahead of rival countries China (12) and Canada (10). Expectations are high that the women's national team’s twin aces, Choi Minjeong and Kim Gilli, will once again prove the stature of Korean short track.

Choi Minjeong is pushing Kim Gilli during relay training at the Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy, on the 8th (local time). Yonhap News

The two athletes, who are senior and junior from Seohyeon High School, boast perfect chemistry. After graduating from Seohyeon High School in 2023, Kim Gilli joined Seongnam City Hall, where her senior and role model Choi Minjeong competes. Even in the off-season, when there are no national team call-ups, they trained together on the same team and skated side by side all year round. In a YouTube show last year, Kim Gilli even said, "I see Choi Minjeong almost every day. I meet her more often than my parents." Their chemistry is expected to shine especially in the women's 5,000m relay and the mixed 2,000m relay.

Choi Minjeong will be chasing a new chapter in women's short track history at this Games. If she wins the women's 1,500m, she will become the first athlete ever to achieve three consecutive Olympic titles in an individual short track event. If she adds one more gold medal on top of that, she will join Wang Meng (China) and Jeon I-gyeong as the all-time leading gold medalists in women's short track, with four golds. So far, across two Olympics, Choi has won three gold medals and two silver medals. Regardless of the color, if she adds just one more medal, she will become the Korean athlete with the most Olympic medals across both Summer and Winter Games. The current record is six medals, held by archer Kim Sooning, shooter Jin Jongoh, and speed skater Lee Seung-hoon.

Her strongest rival is her junior on the national team, Kim Gilli. In this year's International Skating Union (ISU) women's short track 1,500m rankings, Kim Gilli is No. 1, Courtney Sarault of Canada is No. 2, and Choi Minjeong is No. 3. At the four ISU World Cup events, Sarault topped the podium at the first event, Choi Minjeong at the second, and Kim Gilli at both the third and fourth.

Choi Minjeong (left) and Kim Gilli, who will compete in short track at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, are talking while training at the Milan Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy, on the 8th (local time). Yonhap News

The men's national team is also pinning its hopes on the performances of Hwang Daeheon and Lim Jongwon. Hwang Daeheon will be aiming for back-to-back Olympic titles in the men's 1,500m. Standing on the Olympic stage for the third time, he has so far collected one gold medal and two silver medals. However, as he has been somewhat underwhelming in this season's ISU World Cup, the key will be how much he can sharpen his form right up until the start of the Games.

On the World Cup stage, it was the "fearsome rookie" Lim Jongwon who actually made the stronger impression than Hwang Daeheon. Born in 2007, Lim is still in his teens but has already established himself as a core asset of the men's national team. In this season's ISU rankings, Lim is No. 2 in the 1,000m and Hwang is No. 6, while in the 1,500m Lim is No. 8 and Hwang is No. 10. While Hwang has yet to taste victory at a World Cup event this season, Lim has stood at the top once each in the 1,000m and 1,500m. In Lim's case, he still lacks experience, so he is disqualified relatively often during races. If he can simply reduce the risk of disqualification, he is regarded as having more than enough ability to challenge for gold.

For Hwang Daeheon, his head-to-head clash with Lin Xiaojun (China, Korean name Lim Hyojun) is another variable. The two skaters, who were teammates on the national squad at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, became irreparably estranged after an incident during training at the Jincheon National Training Center in June 2019. After receiving a one-year suspension, Lim Hyojun naturalized as a Chinese citizen, and through this Games he will return to the Olympic stage for the first time in eight years as a member of the Chinese national team.