Milan: South Korea won at least one speed skating gold medal at three consecutive Winter Olympics starting in 2010 in Vancouver before the streak came to a halt in Beijing in 2022. Taking home two silver and two bronze medals is no mean feat -- those four medals were the third-highest total in Beijing, behind the Netherlands with 12 and Canada and Japan with five apiece -- but South Korean speed skaters will seek a return to the top of the podium at the Milan-Cortina Games this month.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Kim Min-sun and Lee Na-hyun, representing the present and future of South Korean speed skating, will vie for a medal in the women's 500 meters. Kim, 26, will be skating in her third consecutive Olympics. Since the early days of her career, Kim has been seen as the successor to Lee Sang-hwa, the 500-meter gold medalist in 2010 and 2014. Although Kim has secured victories in International Skating Union (ISU) World Cup events, Olympic success has been elusive. Kim finished 16th in the 500m in 2018 and then seventh four years later.
Kim found her stride in the 2022-2023 ISU World Cup season, when she earned the 500m overall title by sweeping five consecutive gold medals. She shifted her training focus for the 2026 Olympics to peak in February, aligning with the Olympic Games, rather than the early months of the speed skating season. This adjustment affected her immediate results at World Cup races, but Kim showed potential in the 2024-2025 season. After securing a bronze in the season opener, Kim missed the podium in her next six 500m races. However, in 2025, Kim claimed a World Cup silver in February and a world championship bronze in March.
In the 2025-2026 season, Kim did not place in the top 10 in the 500m until the third World Cup stop in early December, where she earned a bronze, marking her first medal of the season. Lee, 20, is emerging as a formidable contender in the 500m. She won silver in that distance at the 2025 Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China, finishing just behind Kim, and claimed the title in the 100m, a non-Olympic event.
Lee set the junior world record in the 500m with 37.43 seconds in January 2024 and has surpassed that mark three times this season, her first at the senior level. She also finished ahead of Kim in the World Cup standings.
Femke Kok, the Dutch star who broke Lee Sang-hwa's 12-year-old world record by clocking 36.09 seconds, remains the favorite for gold in Milan. Erin Jackson, the defending champion from the United States, aims to become the first since Lee to win consecutive 500m gold medals. The speed skating competition will begin Saturday, with all races scheduled at Milano Speed Skating Stadium.