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Asian Winter Games returns after eight year hiatus in February

Published: 08 Jan. 2025, 09:57

JIM BULLEY
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Choi Min-jeong, center, races at the 2024-2025 International Skating Union (ISU) Short Track World Tour Seoul meet at Mokdong Ice Rink in western Seoul on Dec. 15, 2024. [YONHAP]

The Asian Winter Games is set to return next month after an eight-year break, with Harbin, China, hosting the event from Feb. 7 to 14.

Around 1,500 athletes from 34 countries will compete for 64 gold medals across six sports and 11 disciplines. For many of those athletes, the Harbin Asian Games will act as tune-up event ahead of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.

Korea, which won 16 gold medals at the 2017 Sapporo Asian Winter Games to finish second behind Japan, is sending a delegation of 220, including 150 athletes. The 2021 edition of the Games was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Historically, the medal race has been dominated by four countries: Korea, Japan, China, and Kazakhstan, although Kazakhstan dropped to fourth on the medal table in 2017 after dominating the previous tournament in 2011.

The central Asian country remains in third place on the all-time medal table, behind Japan and China and above Korea.

Short track speed skating remains Korea’s strongest discipline. Olympic champion Choi Min-jeong, rising star Kim Gil-li and Park Ji-won headline a team aiming to add multiple medals in one of the nation’s most dominant sports.

In speed skating, Kim Min-sun, Kim Jun-ho and Cha Min-kyu are strong contenders. Cha Jun-hwan in men’s figure skating and Lee Chae-un in snowboard halfpipe are also medal hopefuls. Both Cha Jun-hwan and Lee could earn military exemptions with victories.

Cha Jun-hwan heads to Harbin having just won the Korean Figure Skating Championships on Sunday with a total score of 281.02 and secured a spot in the national squad for the 2025-26 season, booking a ticket to the World Figure Skating Championships in March.

Cha, 23, was the first Korean male figure skater to medal at the World Figure Skating Championships, winning a silver medal in Japan in March 2023. He won a silver at the World Team Trophy later that year and went on to win bronze at the Four Continents Championships in 2024.

Cha Jun-hwan competes during the Korean Figure Skating Championships at Uijeongbu Indoor Ice Rink in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi on Jan. 5. [NEWS1]

But while Cha is Korea’s best-even men’s figure skating prospect, he will face tough competition from Japan, who historically excel at the discipline. Currently, Japan’s Kagiyama Yuma, Sato Shun and Miura Kao all sit above Cha on the International Skating Union world rankings.

The event’s organizing committee has described the Games as a platform to "celebrate winter and foster connections across Asia." Its slogan, “Dream of Winter, Love among Asia,” was announced alongside mascots Binbin and Nini, the cartoon versions of two real-life Siberian tigers born at the Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin last year.

The emblem, according to the organizers, features a short track speed skater’s silhouette combined with lilac flowers and ribbons, which are said to symbolize "transcendence."

Temperatures in Harbin are expected to drop below minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit), creating challenging conditions for athletes and organizers, particularly in outdoor snow events.

BY SONG JI-HOON AND JIM BULLEY [[email protected]]