South Korea has signed the first foreign coach for its national figure skating team in hopes of bolstering its medal prospects for the upcoming Winter Olympics, the sport’s national governing body said Wednesday.

Korea Skating Union said Sergei Astashev from Russia will be guiding the national team skaters. The KSU said personal coaches for some skaters will try to work out their scheduling with the new coach.

South Korea’s PyeongChang will host the 2018 Winter Olympics and the KSU said it hopes to become more competitive in figure skating by then.

“By bringing in a coach from overseas, we will try to have balanced development across all disciplines in figure skating,” the KSU said. “A team event will be added starting at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi (of Russia). By PyeongChang, our goal is to have skaters qualify for every event.”

Kim Yu-na is the only South Korean figure skater to have won an Olympic medal. She won the ladies’ singles gold at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games, about a year after clinching her first world championship. Her success has spawned a nationwide interest in figure skating, but no other South Korean has come close to matching her success.

But Astashev said he is optimistic about the future of figure skating here. 

(Yonhap News)