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Han Sang-min off to solid start in men's skiing events

Published: 07 Mar. 2022, 12:26

Han Sang-min skis in the men's Super-G sitting race at the National Alpine Skiing Centre in Yanqing, Beijing on Sunday. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Korea's Han Sang-min finished in 12th-place in the men's downhill sitting race in the para alpine skiing on Saturday, becoming one of only 14 skiers in Korea's first medal event of the 2022 Beijing Paralympics.

Han finished the downhill race with a total time of 1 minute and 26.69 seconds, 9.96 seconds behind Corey Peters of New Zealand in first place. Only 14 of the 25 races were able to finish.

Han returned to the slopes a day later on Sunday for the men's Super-G sitting, finishing in 18th-place with a time of 1 minute and 19.43, 9.74 seconds behind Jesper Pedersen of Norway.

Han is competing in a total of five events at the Beijing Games: Downhill, Super-G, slalom, giant slalom and super combined.

Han has been a Paralympian for 20 years, having won Korea's first-ever alpine skiing Paralympics medal at the 2022 Salt Lake City Games. He's a multi-sport athlete, having also won gold for Korea at the 2014 Asian Para Games in Incheon.

Han competes in the LW-12 sport class for sit-skiers with normal or only slightly decreased trunk function and leg impairments.

There are three different medal contests in each skiing event: Visually impaired, standing and sitting. Within each event, athletes are classified based on their impairment, and the score takes these classifications into account.

In standing events, there are nine classifications, LW1 to LW9, while in sitting there are three, LW10 to LW12, and in visually impaired events there are three, B1 to B3. The numbers, or classification factors, indicate how much an athlete’s impairment is expected to affect their ability to compete in the sport.

As a result, the athlete that finishes the race first does not necessarily win gold. An athlete’s finishing time is multiplied by their classification factor, and this determines the final standing.

In sitting events, if the result ends as a tie after the classification factor calculations are made, the athlete who first crossed the finish line is the winner.

As of press time, Han was set to compete in the super combined sitting on Monday afternoon, with the giant slalom following on Thursday and the slalom on Saturday.

BY JIM BULLEY [[email protected]]