Korean skating's prodigal son is ready to come in from the cold

Victor An, the Korean-born short track speed skater who’s high-profile defection to Russia in 2011 made him persona non grata in Korea, is looking to come in from the cold — figuratively at least.

Victor An trains with the Russian short track speed skating team in Seoul in 2017. [YONHAP]

Victor An, the Korean-born short track speed skater who’s high-profile defection to Russia in 2011 made him persona non grata in Korea, is looking to come in from the cold — figuratively at least.

The JoongAng Ilbo reported Monday that An has applied for an open coaching position at the Seongnam City Hall ice skating team, the same team that he skated for 15 years ago when he was still based in Korea.

Seongnam is home to one of the strongest short track speed skating squads in Korea and, on the rare occasions when she’s not busy with national team commitments, is home to three-time Olympic champion Choi Min-jung.

An’s potential return to Korean skating would be the latest twist in a long and highly controversial tale.

An was once the darling of the Korean short-track skating scene, and it’s a big scene — Korea has won more than twice as many Olympic gold medals as any other nation in the sport. An was one of the most decorated Korean-born Olympians, winning three gold and one bronze medal at the 2006 Turin Games skating for Korea under the name Ahn Hyun-soo.

Victor An, then skating as Ahn Hyun-soo, celebrates after winning the 5,000 meters for Korea at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

After the Olympics and the following 2006 World Championships, An’s relationship with the Korean skating authorities began to break down.

After returning to Korea from the World Championships, An’s father reportedly argued with the Korea Skating Union’s vice president, claiming the coach was not giving An enough attention. The short-track team was split into two — An was assigned to the women’s coach, and the animosity ran high.

In 2008, An was injured during training and had to undergo multiple surgeries on his knee. The resulting rehab knocked him off his game, sending him from six-time world champion to failing to qualify for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

In 2011, the Seongnam City Hall team, the team An belonged to and the same team he now hopes to work at, was disbanded due to financial issues. Frustrated with his treatment by the national team and the sudden disappearance of his club, an increasingly disillusioned An left the Korean team and defected to Russia.

He became a citizen and quickly began to compete for Korea’s northern neighbor, winning the country’s first medals in speed skating at the 2014 Sochi Games, the same year he regained his world champion title.

An continued to skate for Russia over the following years, but injury disrupted his career again. He had intended to retire after the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, wanting to skate one more time in his home country, but was barred from competing following the sports doping scandal in Russia. An had never tested positive for drugs.

Victor An talks to reporters in Seoul in March, 2022. [YONHAP]

An retired that year, then unretired himself a year later to win a couple of World Cup medals, before finally retiring again in 2020. He joined the Chinese coaching squad for the 2022 Beijing Olympics and helped lead China to two gold, one silver and one bronze medal, only slightly behind Korea on the medal table.

An has since moved back to Korea to rejoin his family, so his application to manage Seongnam City Hall is not quite as out of the blue as the media furor suggests.

Despite the gradual thawing of relations between An and the Korean public — in 2019 he starred in MBC reality series “Real Man 300,” signaling a much more comfortable return to Korean public life — he has not as yet made any more to reenter the Korean short track speed skating world.

The final recruitment decision for Seongnam City Hall coach will be made after interviews are completed.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]