Milan: Over her extensive career that spans three Winter Olympic Games, short track speed skater Choi Min-jeong has seen enough and done enough to live with the inherently chaotic nature of her sport. That hard-earned perspective allowed the 27-year-old to shake off the latest on-ice crash involving her mixed relay team at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on Tuesday and immediately start looking ahead to upcoming races.
According to Yonhap News Agency, South Korea's bid for its first medal in the mixed relay, which features two female and two male skaters per team, took an unexpected tumble in the semifinals at Milano Ice Skating Arena. Kim Gil-li got tripped up by Corinne Stoddard of the United States in the late stages of the 18-lap race. After briefly taking the lead, Stoddard lost her balance and fell. Kim didn't have nearly enough time to react and skate around the American along the fence, and hit the ice next to Stoddard. South Korea settled for second place in the consolation "B" final.
Choi commented on the incident, stating, "A situation like this is a reason why we all say short track has so many variables. It's just part of the game in our sport. There was nothing we could do about it. We got a bit unlucky today, so hopefully we will have better luck on some other days. We just finished our first event here and it's on to the next one."
Kim, who was not made available to comment, was in third place at the time of her collision with Stoddard. If the South Korean had been in second place, the referee would have awarded South Korea an "advancement" and sent the team to the final after the incidental contact impacted South Korea's progress. However, Choi maintained a positive outlook, emphasizing, "In relays, we win together and lose together. Today, we just didn't skate well."
South Korea had also failed to win a medal in the mixed relay's Olympic debut in Beijing four years ago, crashing out of the quarterfinals when one of its male skaters, Park Jang-hyuk, fell without contact. Choi, who was also on that ill-fated team four years ago, recalled how she and her teammates were able to bounce back then and expressed hope for the same type of resilience. The mixed relay was the first medal event of the short track competition in Milan.
"Our goal was to build some positive momentum from the very beginning, and it's disappointing not to have done it," Choi said. "We talked amongst ourselves about how we have to overcome this adversity. So we'll give our best in all the remaining races."