Milan: Alpine snowboarder Kim Sang-kyum arrived in Italy for the Winter Olympics as a forgotten man on his own team, with Lee Sang-ho, the 2018 silver medalist in the men's parallel giant slalom, widely regarded as a medal contender. That Lee was named male captain of the entire South Korean delegation by the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee (KSOC) spoke volumes about the country's expectations for Lee. Few, if any, would have expected Kim to even come close to a medal. However, it will be Kim, not Lee, who will leave the Milan-Cortina Winter Games as an Olympic medalist.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Kim, 37, rode a couple of lucky victories in the knockout stage to grab an unexpected silver medal in the parallel giant slalom at Livigno Snow Park in Livigno, some 230 kilometers north of Milan, on Sunday. The competition began with the qualification round, where the top 16 boarders based on combined times from two runs advanced to the knockout stage. Lee posted the sixth-best time and Kim ranked eighth.
While Lee was eliminated in the round of 16, Kim won his first knockout race when Zan Kosir of Slovenia fell and failed to finish his race. Kim then went up against Roland Fischnaller of Italy in the quarterfinals. As No. 1 in the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) World Cup standings this season, Fischnaller was a huge favorite over 20th-ranked Kim. But Lady Luck smiled on Kim once again, as Fischnaller lost his balance and could not finish his run.
Kim won his semifinal race over Tervel Zamfirov of Bulgaria by 0.23 second, but in the final, the defending champion from Austria, Benjamin Karl, proved too much for Kim, who lost by 0.19 second. Though Kim fell shy of gold, he will still be remembered as one of the most surprising medalists for South Korea.
This was his fourth Olympics but only his second appearance in the knockouts. His previous best finish had been 15th place at the 2018 PyeongChang Games. He finished 17th in the qualification in 2014 and 24th in 2022. Kim has zero FIS World Cup victories. He won a silver in November 2024 and a bronze in March 2025, with no other podium finish. In nine career world championships, Kim has never ranked higher than fourth.
The list of reasons that make Kim such an improbable medalist is a long one, but Kim himself never doubted himself. "My objective here is to finish in first place," Kim told the KSOC in an earlier interview. "I've worked so hard over the past four years and I want to demonstrate the fruits of that labor."