BEIJING-- The 2018 Olympic men's skeleton champion Yun Sung-bin ranked outside the top 10 halfway through his gold medal defense at Beijing 2022 on Thursday.
The South Korean had a combined time of 2:02.43 to rank 12th after the first two of four runs at Yanqing National Sliding Centre in Yanqing District, northwestern Beijing. Yun sits 2.10 seconds back of the leader, Christopher Grotheer of Germany.
The one other South Korean in action, Jung Seung-gi, is in 10th place at 2:02.22.
At PyeongChang 2018, Yun became the first South Korean to win an Olympic sliding gold medal. But Yun is in the midst of his worst season since that Olympics, and he will have to make up substantial ground to sniff a medal this time around.
Yun finished his first run in 1:01.26 and improved that time by 0.09 second in the next run.
Yun had given a pessimistic outlook for himself in the days leading up to Beijing, saying he was not in good enough form to even sniff a medal.
His words seemed to prove prophetic, at least on the first day.
"I am disappointed to have made so many mistakes," Yun said. "I wasn't hoping for any miracle, but at least I wanted to execute everything that I'd worked on. I couldn't even do that."
Yun had once been one of the very best in starts. On Thursday, though, he only had the sixth-fastest start in the first run and the eighth-best start in the second run.
"I didn't have enough training to feel confident in my starts," Yun said. "That's why I wanted to concentrate on other parts of my run, but I lost a lot of speed with mistakes in the latter part of the track."
Yun said he was trying to forget about being the defending gold medalist and start things from scratch in Beijing.
"I don't feel 100 percent physically," he said. "But no matter what that percentage is, I will do my best under the circumstances."
Yun had to ditch his signature "Iron Man" helmet for sponsorship reasons. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) bans any use of brands or logos not belonging to its official sponsors. Yun said, though wearing a different helmet didn't have any bearing on his races, "I didn't feel great because I couldn't put on something I've had for eight years. It felt awkward."
Jung, who won his first career International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation (IBSF) World Cup medal in December, posted 1:01.18 in his first slide. He was faster by 0.14 second in the next run.
Jung said he was pleased to get his first Olympic runs out of the way, but he wasn't entirely happy with his results.
"As an athlete, you should only be content when you reach the top," Jung said. "I wasn't all that nervous until yesterday. But once I got to the track today, I started getting jittery. I think I need more experience."
In 2018, Yun capitalized on the opportunity to train extensively at the Olympic venue as the slider for the host country. For Beijing 2022, Chinese sliders were expected to enjoy a similar advantage.
One Chinese, Yan Wengang, is in third place at the halfway point at 2:01.08, 0.05 behind the second-place slider from Germany, Axel Jungk. Another slider from the home country, Yin Zheng, is seventh.
The third and the fourth run are scheduled for Friday.
Source: Yonhap News Agency