Korea takes silver as speed skating begins at Gangwon Youth Olympics

GANGNEUNG, Gangwon — An enthusiastic crowd filled the stands at the Gangneung Oval in Gangeung, Gangwon on Monday for the first speed skating race of the Gangwon 2024 Youth Olympics.

Jung Hui-dan competes in the women's 500-meter speed skating race at the Gangneung Oval in Gangneung, Gangwon on Monday. [YONHAP]

GANGNEUNG, Gangwon — An enthusiastic crowd filled the stands at the Gangneung Oval in Gangeung, Gangwon on Monday for the first speed skating race of the Gangwon 2024 Youth Olympics.

The women’s 500 meters was the first event on the ice at 11 a.m., with Korea’s Jung Hui-dan taking silver. Jung finished 0.36 seconds behind gold medal winner Angel Daleman of the Netherlands, edging out Waka Sasabuchi of Japan by 0.01 seconds.

In speed skating, athletes race in pairs but are scored against the entire field based on the time achieved. The racing pair act as motivation and competition, but are not directly judged against each other.

This differs from short track speed skating, unsurprisingly raced on a significantly shorter track, where athletes race against each other, not the clock.

Korea has already seen some success on the short track, taking gold and bronze in the men’s 1,500 meters on Saturday. Joo Jae-hee took gold in that race with a time of 2 minutes and 21.906 seconds, beating China’s Zhang Xinzhe in second and countryman Kim You-sung in third.

Both speed skating and short track races are set to continue later on Monday as of press time, with the men’s 500-meter speed skating scheduled to begin in the early afternoon and both the men’s and women’s 500-meter short track scheduled to conclude with medal races in the evening.

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