Park Je-un finishes Olympics with 44th place in nordic combined

Olympic Sports

Published: 15 Feb. 2022, 22:12

Park Je-un finishes Olympics with 44th place in nordic combined

Park Je-un soars through the air during the competition round of the individual Gundersen large hill 10-kilometer ski jumping competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Zhangjiakou, China on Tuesday. [AP/YONHAP]

Park Je-un rounded off his Olympics with a 44th-place finish in the men's individual Gundersen large hill 10-kilometer nordic combined on Tuesday at Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre in Zhangjiakou, China.

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.

There are three separate events nordic combined events at the Beijing Games, men's normal hill 10 kilometers, men's large hill 10 kilometers and the team event. The only difference between the two individual points is the size of the ski jumping hill.

In Tuesday's large hill event, Park scored 67.9 for his ski jump, allowing him to start the cross-country portion of the competition in 39th place, 4 minutes and 48 seconds behind first place.

He slipped back during the race and finished 44th out of 47 competitors with a time of 34 minutes and 56.5 seconds, 7 minutes and 43.2 seconds behind first place.

Tuesday's was Park's second and final event of the Beijing Olympics. He earlier finished 42nd out of 44 competitors in the normal hill 10-kilometer race, getting 82.3 points for his jump for 36th place and then slipping back during the race to finish with a time of 32 minutes and 34.3 seconds, 7 minutes and 26.6 seconds off first place.

Twenty-eight-year-old Park is now a two-time Olympian, after having finished 47th in the large hill and 46th in the normal hill events 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.

On Tuesday the gold medal went to Joergen Graabak of Norway, the silver to Jens Luraas Oftebro, also of Norway, and the bronze to Akito Watabe of Japan.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]