Milan: Not entirely satisfied with the country's performance at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics this month, South Korean Olympic chief Ryu Seung-min pledged better support for his athletes for future competitions.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Ryu, president of the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee (KSOC), addressed the state of training environments and budget issues for South Korean Olympians at the delegation's wrap-up press conference at Korea House in Milan on Sunday, the final day of the competition.

With South Korea's two four-man bobsleigh teams sitting well outside medal contention in the last event for the country, South Korea was expected to finish the Olympics with three gold medals, four silver medals, and three bronze medals. South Korea exceeded both its gold medal total and the overall medal count from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, where it grabbed two golds, five silvers, and two bronzes. Additionally, South Korea won three medals in snowboard, including a gold by Choi Gaon in the women's halfpipe, after only winning medals in short track and long track speed skating in Beijing.

Ryu described South Korea's showing in northern Italy as a partial success. "Although we reached our target of three gold medals, I am always hungry for more," said Ryu, the 2004 Olympic men's singles table tennis champion. "Upon closer look, there were situations where we could have won gold medals but didn't. I believe we have to establish a better support system for our athletes. In sports such as biathlon and cross-country skiing, we sit far below international standards. I want to help athletes in as many sports as possible realize their dreams."

Ryu highlighted Choi's snowboard gold as an outlier, noting that it was by an athlete from a country that has no inflatable airbag for training. "She has had to travel around the world to train," Ryu said. "Even after we hosted the Winter Olympics in 2018 in PyeongChang, nothing really changed as far as support is concerned. Athletes in skiing and sliding sports, in particular, have faced difficulties. We have to provide the right combination of good facilities, sufficient budget, and proper support to keep our athletes competitive. The KSOC will take the leading role."

Kim Na-mi, KSOC's secretary general who took care of athletes competing in snow events in Livigno, some 140 kilometers north of Milan, said she was proud of South Korean snowboarders for bringing home medals despite their challenges. "It is embarrassing that a country that hosted a Winter Olympics doesn't have a halfpipe venue," said Kim, a former alpine skier. "In the past Winter Games, snow sports often played second fiddle to skating events. But their hard work really paid off here, and even those who did not win a medal showed a lot of promise."

Ryu also stated that the KSOC will look into adjusting athletes' training programs across sports because he noticed instances where South Korean athletes were outmuscled and outworked by bigger and stronger competitors. Lee Soo-kyung, head of the Korea Skating Union who served as South Korea's chef de mission, said athletes have to "test and push their limits" during the Olympics. She hinted that scaling back on the intensity of physical training for South Korean Olympians, out of "respect for athletes' human rights," was to blame for the athletes' struggles.

"Over the course of the past three weeks, it was easy to see how some athletes were having a hard time staying in peak form," said Lee, a former figure skater. "We've been letting individual athletes set their own programs and I think it has prevented them from going beyond their limits."

Kim Taek-soo, head of the Jincheon National Training Center, the main training ground for the Korean Olympians, clarified that giving athletes a choice to build their training regimens hasn't come at the expense of the intensity of those sessions. "The amount and the intensity of training are both nonnegotiable," Kim said. "Our athletes may not be as well-conditioned as those that came before them, and we will make sure they will continue to put in the work."