Park Ji-won and Kim Gil-li\s Golden Return
Men"s and Women"s Short Track "Crystal Globe" Park Ji-won and Kim Gil-li"s Golden Return
Park Ji-won and Kim Gil-li “We will win a gold medal at the World Championships”
Seo Yi-ra “A gold medal that marks the second chapter of an athlete’s life… Our goal is the Milan Winter Olympics”
Park Ji-won (Seoul City Hall) and Kim Gil-li (Seongnam City Hall) of the Korean short track team, who won the overall championship in the men"s and women"s division in the 2023-2024 International Skating Union (ISU) World Cup series and received the "Crystal Glove", made a golden return.
The Korean short track team returned to Korea through Incheon International Airport on the afternoon of the 20th.
When the arrivals hall door opened and the men"s and women"s national teams, including Park Ji-won and Kim Gil-li, walked out, dozens of fans gathered at the airport cheered enthusiastically.
Ji-won Park and Gil-li Kim took first place in the men"s and women"s divisions, respectively, this season.
Park Ji-won won the gold medal in the men"s 1,000m final of the 6th competition of the 2023-2024 ISU Short Track World Cup held in Gdansk, Poland on the 19th, and worked with Kim Geon-woo (Sports Toto), Jang Seong-woo (Korea University), and Kim Tae-seong (Seoul City Hall).
He won a silver medal in the men"s 5,000m relay, accumulating a total of 1,068 points in the World Cup rankings.
Park Ji-won, who was in the position of a chaser chasing first place, achieved a thrilling come-from-behind victory by beating his ‘rival’ Stephen Dubois (Canada, 1,005 points) by 19 points.
ISU introduced the "Crystal Glove" last season to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the World Cup, and Park Ji-won, last season"s inaugural winner, shone as the best player in the men"s division for two consecutive years until this season.
Park Ji-won said, "We aimed to win the final for the second time in a row, but perhaps because of the pressure, the early season games did not go as well as we wanted.
“I think Plan B and Plan C worked well in the second half of the season and resulted in good results,” he said.
Park Ji-won, who had a domestic fight with Kim Geon-woo and Jang Seong-woo in the 1,000m finals with the Crystal Gloves, said, "We didn"t talk much about winning the Crystal Gloves before the race.
Even if we don"t win the trophy because we missed out on first place in the race, it"s still a sport."
“I thought about it,” he said confidently.
Park Ji-won, who said, “I achieved one of my goals by winning the Crystal Glove two years in a row,” expressed her determination to win two gold medals at the World Championships held in the Netherlands next month, following last year.
Kim Gil-li won a silver medal in the women"s 1,000m final, and also won a silver medal in the women"s 3,000m relay with Lee So-yeon (Sports Toto), Seo Hwi-min (Korea University), and Shim Seok-hee (Seoul City Hall).
Kim Gil-li, who swept seven gold medals (three in the 1,000 m and four in the 1,500 m) in this season"s World Cup series, accumulated a total of 1,211 points in the World Cup rankings, beating USA"s Kristin Santos-Griswold (1,180 points) by 31.
He gradually pushed ahead and came in first place overall, winning his first Crystal Glove.
Gilly Kim said, "I am so proud that I achieved my biggest goal of the season, which was to win the Crystal Globe."
She laughed, "I kept holding the trophy with both hands because it was so heavy that I couldn"t lift it with one hand."
Gil-li Kim said, "I am so proud that I achieved my biggest goal of the season, which was to win the Crystal Globe."
She laughed, "I kept holding the trophy with both hands because it was so heavy that I couldn"t lift it with one hand."
Meanwhile, Seo Yi-ra, who crossed the finish line in first place in the men"s 500m at this competition and won the World Cup individual gold medal eight years after the 2015-2016 season, said, "I shook off the disappointment of second place in the 4th competition held at home in December last year.
Korea . “I am even more happy to have shown that I am competitive in short distances,” he said.
Seo-i-ra, who retired after the 2018 World Championships and started her career as a coach, took on the Taegeuk symbol again after five years, saying, “I think I forgot how difficult exercise was during the break.
I thought I could do it, so I started again. “I regretted it because it was so physically difficult, but the results were so good that I have no regrets,” he laughed.
Seo Yi-ra, who is living the second chapter of her career as an athlete after returning from retirement, said, "(This gold medal) was an opportunity to announce the beginning of my second career as an athlete," and "My dream of the 2026 Milan-Cortina d"Ampezzo Winter Olympics has become bigger." He said.