Speed skaters looking to inherit winning ways
Published: 02 Feb. 2026, 09:25
Updated: 02 Feb. 2026, 18:01
![Korean speed skater Kim Min-sun poses for photos during a media availability at Taeneung International Rink in Seoul on Jan. 8. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/02/02/5c35bfab-247e-4a3a-b999-d27927a5c194.jpg)
Korean speed skater Kim Min-sun poses for photos during a media availability at Taeneung International Rink in Seoul on Jan. 8. [YONHAP]
Korea won at least one speed skating gold medal at three consecutive Winter Olympics starting in 2010 in Vancouver before the streak came to a halt in Beijing in 2022.
Taking home two silver and two bronze medals is no mean feat — those four medals were the third-highest total in Beijing, behind the Netherlands with 12 and Canada and Japan with five apiece — but Korean speed skaters will seek a return to the top of the podium at the Milan Cortina Games this month.
Kim Min-sun and Lee Na-hyun, each representing the present and the future of Korean speed skating, will vie for a medal in the women's 500 meters.
Kim, 26, will be skating in her third consecutive Olympics. Since the early days of her career, Kim has been hailed as the second coming of Lee Sang-hwa, the 500-meter gold medalist in 2010 and 2014 who also won silver in that distance in 2018.
While Kim has had her share of victories in the ISU World Cup events, she has not come close to matching Lee's success in the Olympics. Kim finished 16th in the 500-meter in 2018 and then seventh four years later.
Kim finally broke out in the 2022-2023 ISU World Cup season, when she earned the 500m overall title by sweeping up five consecutive gold medals in one dominant stretch.
However, with an eye toward the 2026 Olympics, Kim decided to alter her training routines after that campaign so that she would be in peak form in February, when the Olympic Games take place, rather than in November or December, the early months of a typical speed skating season.
![Korean speed skater Lee Na-hyun takes part in an open training session at Taeneung International Rink in Seoul on Jan. 8. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/02/02/265aaa39-45ad-4cda-a0ef-5bc28ebb2975.jpg)
Korean speed skater Lee Na-hyun takes part in an open training session at Taeneung International Rink in Seoul on Jan. 8. [YONHAP]
That change came at the expense of immediate results at World Cup races, but Kim showed some promise in the 2024-2025 season. After taking bronze in the season opener, Kim missed the podium in her next six 500m races. Then, after the calendar flipped to 2025, Kim won a World Cup silver in February and a world championship bronze in March.
For the 2025-2026 season, Kim did not crack the top 10 in the 500-meter until the third World Cup stop in early December. And on Dec. 14, 2025, Kim earned bronze for her first medal of the season.
Lee, 20, is the rising star in the 500-meter. She finished right behind Kim to win the silver medal in that distance at the 2025 Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China, and then held off Kim for the title in the 100m, which is not an Olympic event.
Lee set the junior world record in the 500-meter with 37.43 seconds in January 2024 and has already topped that mark three times this season, her first at the senior level. Lee also finished just ahead of Kim in the World Cup standings
Femke Kok, the Dutch star who broke Lee Sang-hwa's 12-year-old world record in November by clocking 36.09 seconds and went 7-for-7 in World Cup races, will be the big gold medal favorite in Milan. Erin Jackson, the defending champion from the United States, will try to become the first since Lee to win consecutive 500-meter gold medals.
The speed skating competition will begin Saturday, with all races scheduled at Milano Speed Skating Stadium.
Yonhap
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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