Men's Monobop Wins
At the 2024 Gangwon Youth Olympics (hereinafter referred to as Gangwon 2024) held at Alpensia Sliding Center in Pyeongchang, Gangwon-do on the 23rd, Jae-hwan took the top spot with a combined time of 1:48.63 in the first and second races.
Following Joo Jae-hee (Han Sang-ho) in men's 1,500-meter short track speed skating, Jae-hwan has given the Korean team a second gold medal. In addition, Jae-hwan garnered his first medal in sledding (bobsleigh, skeleton, and luge) at the fourth Winter Youth Olympics this year. In addition, this is the first time in eight years that he has won a bronze medal in cross-country skiing (Kim Magnus (gold, silver, silver) and snowboarding halfpipe at the 2016 Lillehammer Games.
In addition, Jae-hwan Jae-hwan became the first Asian athlete to win a gold medal in sledding in the history of the Winter Youth Olympics.
Ji Jae-hwan, who started throwing shots in track and field first, changed his sport to skeleton when he was a ninth grader. He gained experience at international competitions and grew faster. This season, he participated in the IBSF Youth Series eight times, earning five gold medals and three silver medals. He also displayed his skills in Gangwon 2024.
Jae-hwan's story is similar to that of Yoon Sung-bin, who started skeleton after being noticed while preparing for physical education and won the gold medal in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. As such, expectations were high at this competition, and Jae-hwan ran at the top of the podium at the track where Yoon Sung-bin won. He showed off his potential to become a leading figure in Korean sledding at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics and the 2030 Winter Olympics, where the venue has not been decided yet.
In the first race, Jae-hwan showed off his personal best of 53.80 seconds. He easily surpassed second-ranked Jonathan Lurimi of Tunisia with a time of 54.79. In the second race, he finished the race with a time of 54.83, which is the second place overall. He thus confirmed his win.
With the silver medal around her neck, Lurimi has deep ties to the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. In order to continue Pyeongchang's legacy, she participated in a project to foster athletes in underdeveloped and developing countries in winter sports, hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province, and Pyeongchang County, and sponsored by the Pyeongchang Memorial Foundation in 2020. Through this project, Lurimi encountered bobsleigh for the first time. At 2024 in Gangwon Province, she was reborn as the first participant in Tunisia's Winter Olympics throughout the adult Olympics.
Shin Yeon-soo (Sangji Daegwallyeong High School) won the bronze medal in men's skeleton with a time of 1:46.05. Emiles Indriksson (Latvia 1:44:66) won the gold and Yaroslav Lavreniuk (Ukraine 1:45.67).
The Korean luge relay team of Kim So-yoon (Shinmyeong Girls' High School), Kim Bo-geun, Bae Jae-seong (Sangji Daegwallyeong High School), and Kim Ha-yoon (Sariul Middle School) finished the event with a time of 2:32:910. In the luge relay, women's singles, men's singles, and doubles are played in order to determine the ranking based on combined records.
Lim Ri-won (Uijeong Girls' High School), a promising female long-distance speed skater, came in sixth with a time of 2:06:28 in the women's 1,500-meter speed skating. Jeong Hee-dan (Shenko High School), a sprint professional who won a silver medal in the women's 500-meter race on the 22nd, ranked 13th with a time of 2:10:60. Heo Seok (Uijeong High School) in the men's 1,500-meter race ranked 10th with a time of 1:55:78, and Shin Sun-woong (Byeolgo High School) ranked 16th with a time of 1:58:52.
The Youth Olympics is a competition that puts more emphasis on harmony than competition among athletes. Teams are not ranked based on medal winning status. Instead, they post medal winning status on their website.
According to the traditional method of counting medals, Italy currently tops the list. It has harvested a total of 11 medals, including seven gold, two silver, and two bronze. Germany and France are running second and third with six and five gold medals, respectively. Korea has won eight medals with two gold, two silver, and four bronze medals, ranking fifth after China (gold 3).