Drawn with Italy's Fontana in the women's 1000m quarterfinals
Lim Jong-eon to face Lin Xiaojun in the men's 500m short track heats
The living legends of Korean and Italian short track speed skating are set to face off.
On the 14th (local time), at the Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy, Choi Minjeong is racing in the short track women's 3000m relay semifinal at the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics. Yonhap News
On February 15, the organizing committee of the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics announced that the ace of the Korean women's short-track team, Choi Minjeong (Seongnam City Hall), has been placed in the same quarterfinal heat of the women's 1000m as Italian veteran Arianna Fontana.
On February 16, Choi Minjeong will compete in Heat 1 of the women's 1000m quarterfinals against Fontana, Kim Boutin (Canada), Chiara Betti (Italy), and Gabriela Topolska (Poland).
Choi Minjeong is the leading figure in Korean short track, having won three gold medals and two silver medals at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. If she adds another gold medal at these Games, she will tie the record for the most Winter Olympic gold medals by a Korean athlete, joining Chun Lee-kyung with four. In addition, if she wins two more medals, she will raise her total to seven Olympic medals, surpassing the overall Korean record of six shared by Jin Jongoh (shooting), Kim Soonyoung (archery), and Lee Seung-hoon (speed skating), and setting a new mark for the most medals by a Korean athlete across the Summer and Winter Olympics. In the women's 3000m relay semifinal held early the same day, she led the team into the final by pulling off two come-from-behind legs.
Fontana is also a veteran. Having competed in the Olympics since the 2006 Turin Games, she captured gold in the mixed 2000m relay and silver in the women's 500m at these Games, extending her own all-time Olympic short-track record to 13 medals (three gold, five silver, and five bronze).
In the women's 1000m quarterfinals, 20 skaters in four heats will compete. The top two finishers from each heat, plus the two fastest among the four third-place skaters, will advance to the semifinals.
Kim Gilli (Seongnam City Hall) and Noh Dohee (Hwaseong City Hall) have been drawn together in Heat 3, where they will face Sandra Velzeboer (Netherlands), the women's 500m gold medalist at these Games, Christine Santos-Griswold, the ace of the U.S. women's team, and Hungary's Laura Vegh Dianna.
On the 14th (local time) at the Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy, Choi Minjeong, competing in the short-track women's 3000m relay semifinal at the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics, is pushing anchor Kim Gilli. Yonhap News
All rounds of the women's 1000m, from the semifinals through the final, will take place on the same day.
The lineups for the men's 500m heats and the men's 5000m relay semifinals, which will also be held that day, have been announced as well. Men's 1000m bronze medalist Lim Jong-eon (Goyang City Hall) will meet his role model, Lin Xiaojun (China, Korean name Lim Hyo-jun), in Heat 8.
Lim Jong-eon nurtured his dream of becoming a national team member after watching Lin Xiaojun's race when he won gold in the men's 1500m wearing the Korean uniform at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Korean-American Andrew Heo and Uzbekistan's Danil Yeibok will also skate in the same heat.
Hwang Dae-heon (Gangwon Provincial Office), the men's 1500m silver medalist at these Games, will compete in Heat 5 against Sun Long (China), Maxime Laoun (Canada), and Brendan Corey (Australia).
In the men's 500m, the top two skaters from each heat and the four fastest among the eight third-place skaters from the eight heats will advance to the quarterfinals.
Only the heats will be held on this day, with the medal races scheduled for February 19. In the men's 5000m relay, Korea will face the Netherlands, Japan, and Belgium in Semifinal Heat 2. A top-two finish will secure a spot in the final on February 21.
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