Choi Min-jeong wins first gold medal of 2022-23 season

Korean short track speed skater Choi Min-jeong won her first gold medal of the 2022-23 season at the International Skating Union (ISU) World Cup in Dresden, Germany on Saturday.

Choi Min-jeong races in the women's 1,000-meter semifinal at the Dresden leg of the ISU World Cup in Dresden, Germany on Saturday. [AP/YONHAP]

Korean short track speed skater Choi Min-jeong won her first gold medal of the 2022-23 season at the International Skating Union (ISU) World Cup in Dresden, Germany on Saturday.

Choi took gold in the women’s 1,500 meters with a time of 2 minutes and 26.536 seconds, beating silver medalist Kristen Santos-Griswold by 0.34 seconds.

Choi came from behind to take the lead in the penultimate lap, pulling ahead to take the narrow lead and top the podium.

Choi’s gold medal comes amid the controversy over the appointment of a short track coach at Seongnam City Hall, the hall that she races for when not on duty with the national team.

Choi and her teammates last week made the unusual move of publicly calling for more transparency in the hiring process after it was announced that Victor An, who famously defected to Russia after renouncing his Korean citizenship in 2011, had applied for and been rejected from the post.

Choi is an elite skater, a multi Olympic medalist and frequent world champion. She won two gold medals in the 3,000-meter relay and 1,500 meters at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics and another gold in the 1,500 meters at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]