Beijing, China, February 17, 2022: The Korean Sport and Olympic Committee (KSOC) held a press conference with their two Beijing Winter Olympic champions on Thursday afternoon.
Celebrating gold medals for Choi Min-jeong and Hwang Dae-heon following the completion of short track speed skating on Wednesday night, the KSOC built on the feelgood factor with a press conference at the Main Media Centre.
Choi, a two-time gold medallist at PyeongChang 2018, won the last race of the programme here – the women’s 1,500 metres, defending the title from four years ago.
Hwang had earlier won the men’s 1,500m title on February 9 – and, so far, these are Korea’s only two gold medals of Beijing 2022.
Choi finished these Olympic Games with one gold and two silver medals, to go with the two gold from PyeongChang 2018. Her messages of congratulations included one from President Moon Jae-in.
Known as the “Queen of Korean Short Track”, Choi said of her Olympic medal collection: “I have them in a cabinet; my mother takes care of them. The 1,500m from Beijing 2022 will be the most valuable and memorable of them.”
Choi noted that all the Olympic short track records had been broken at these Games. “We have had to get faster and do more power training,” she said.
The Korean short track team at Beijing 2022 was regarded as weaker than previous teams, a fact Choi acknowledged.
"Our core members have been missing, so there was a shake-up,” she said. “There were concerns. We were very motivated to have a good performance. This was my second Olympics and I felt responsible. But the more I heard about these criticisms, the more I was determined to do better."
Hwang added that Korean athletes still had to be world-class to be selected in the Olympic team.
“I don’t think we were viewed as weak. The team is very competitive,” he said.
Despite his gold medal in the men’s 1,500m and silver in the men’s 5,000m relay, Hwang said he was far from at the peak of his game. “I have a long way to go in my career. I will continue to strive to be a better athlete,” he said.