(Winter Olympics) Skiers, sledders to make Olympic dreams into reality

By Kim Boram
(This is the last of five articles on South Korea's expected performance at the
Vancouver Winter Olympics.)
SEOUL, Jan. 31 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will send 46 athletes to the upcoming
Vancouver Winter Olympics next month, some of whom are called "pioneers" of
winter sports in their country.
The spotlight will shine on Kim Yu-na, one of the strongest hopefuls for gold in
figure skating, as well as short track speed skaters, who collected a record six
golds in Turin four years ago. But medals in other sports, regardless of their
color, will also make a big news here.
On the fringes of global winter sports circles for years, skiers, snowboarders
and sledders used to be happy to just compete in the Olympics, without even the
slightest chance of standing on the podium. But this year, their intense training
may pay off.
South Korea's two-man and four-man bobsled teams, which managed to clinch berths
to the Winter Olympics for the first time in the sport's history in Korea, will
try to repeat the feat of Jamaican sledders in the movie "Cool Runnings."
Kang Kwang-bae, the 36-year-old veteran sledder who will pilot the teams and who
has been dubbed a "pioneer" in South Korea's sliding sport events, will compete
in his fourth Olympics. He participated in three previous Olympic Games as a luge
and skeleton player.
He knows his teams are underdogs at this year's Winter Games but he said he and
his teammates -- Kim Dong-hyun, Lee Jin-hee and Kim Jung-su -- will do their
best.
"I'm still very happy that I have come to be able to play at the Olympics,
although our teams are known to be far from medals. I'll gain the self-respect of
South Korea's sled events," said Kang.
Cho In-ho and Lee Yong will test their speed on the ice track in the skeleton and
luge, while alpine skiers Jung Dong-hyun, Kim Woo-sung and Kim Sun-joo are also
looking forward to the Vancouver Olympics.
South Korea's alpine skiing has left only faint tracks on the international
field, as retired Hur Seung-wook's 21st-place finish in the 1998 Nagano Games
marks the country's best result ever.
National champion Jung Dong-hyun is focusing on making a top-20 finish at next
month's Olympics, overcoming compatriot Hur's mark. Jung is in peak condition
with the start of the Games less than two weeks away, winning some international
competitions, including last week's 2010 Far East Cup in the slalom event.
Ski jumping has emerged as a sport with much promise for South Korea, as the team
won a gold medal in the group event at the 2007 Turin Winter Universiade.
Three ski jumpers -- Choi Heung-chul, Kim Hyun-ki and Choi Yong-jik -- are ready
to make big hits in individual events next month. They will not compete for the
four-man team event, as their colleague Kang Chil-gu failed to get a ticket to
the Winter Games.
Choi Heung-chul grabbed the title at the individual K-90 event with 261 points at
the International Ski Federation Cup held in Austria in July last year, raising
hope for the first top-10 finish in Vancouver.
Cross-country skiier Lee Chae-won reached the finish line 57th out of 64 players
in the 15 kilometer pursuit event at the 2006 Turin Games, although she has
dominated national competitions since she joined the national team in 1998.
Other players will also represent South Korea on different fields.
Freestyle skiier Seo Jung-wha, snowboarder Kim Ho-jun, and biathlon players Moon
Ji-hee and Lee In-bok are trailblazers in the country's winter sports. They have
gone through tough training with a passion for the relatively unknown sports amid
public indifference.
Their races will be compared to that of other winter sports powerhouses,
including the United States and other European countries, but they said they are
happy to play at the world's biggest sports showpiece.
brk@yna.co.kr
(END)