South Korean Winter Games History

The South Korean capital of Seoul staged the 1988 Summer Games. The nation made its Winter Games debut in 1948 and sits 19^th in the all-time winter medal standings with 20 (11 gold, five silver, four bronze). It picked up four medals in short track at the 2002 Salt Lake Games. Ko Gi-Hyun won gold (1500m) and silver (1000m), her victory making her the fifth Winter Olympian younger than 16 to win gold (she is the fourth-youngest gold medalist in Winter Games history). The youngest gold medalist and overall medalist in Olympic Winter Games history is South Korean Kim Yun-Mi, who was 13 years, 83 days old when she won a short track gold medal at the 1994 Lillehammer Games.

I found this on the official Olympic website, which gave a brief history of the Korean participation in the Winter Olympics. Korea has won a total of 20 medals overall, 11 of them gold. I was interested to notice that all of the medals are from either short track or speed skating. This partially explains the fervor the Koreans have over this sport, as mentioned in previous blogs, and the support for its atheletes. However, I'm wondering why the Koreans haven't expanded to more winter sports. Is it because of the tradition of winning that Koreans focus so much on speed skating? Do what you're good at, right? I see the same trend with other Asian countries. Japan, which has had a horrible Winter Olympics so far, also has a majority of its medals from speed skating. However, they have also shown done well in skiing. China has just recently expanded into ice skating, and they have 3 bronzes and a silver to show for it. I'm interested to see the path that South Korea takes in future Winter Games. Recently, I've heard about a Korean figure-skater by the name of Kim Yu-Na. I'm interested to see if she is a pioneer in competitive ice-skating in South Korea, or if she is just one of many.

YYZ