Park Je-un shows improvement in return to nordic combined

Olympic Sports

Published: 09 Feb. 2022, 22:35

Park Je-un shows improvement in return to nordic combined

Park Je-un in action during the Nordic Combined event at National Ski Jumping Centre in Zhangjiakou, China on Wednesday. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Park Je-un marked his best Olympic finish, coming in 42nd out of 44 skiers in the men’s Nordic combined with a total time of 32:34.3 at Zhangjiakou Ski Jumping and Cross-Country Centres in Hebei, China.

Twenty-eight-year-old Park is now a two-time Olympian, after having finished 47th at the 2018 PyeongChang Games.

Park’s father, who is a two-time cross-country skiing Olympian, was Park’s coach when he debuted at the PyeongChang Olympics. At the PyeongChang Games, Park also competed in the ski jump team event as Team Korea’s fourth member.

As the name suggests, Nordic combined is a combination of two separate sports: Ski jumping and cross-country skiing. Athletes begin with a ski-jump and then compete in a 10-kilometer cross-country race.

The individual scores for each athlete’s jump determine the starting order for the following cross-country race.

Park Je-un in action during the Nordic Combined event at National Ski Jumping Centre in Zhangjiakou, China on Wednesday. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Park was able to jump 90 meters, receiving 82.3 points for the ski jump, coming in 36th. In the following cross-country race, Park finished 42nd with a time of 33:34.03, seven minutes and 26.6 seconds behind leader Vinzenz Geiger of Germany.

Geiger won his second consecutive gold medal with a time of 25:07.7 after having also topped the table at the PyeongChang Games.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]