A team of professional Korean alpine skiers began their downhill and Super-G training last week for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics following the International Ski Federation Ski World Cup held on Feb. 6-7 at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism backed eight athletes of the Korea Ski Association and two Paralympians of the Korea Adaptive Ski Association to try out part of the Jeongseon ski slopes, which will be one of the venues for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

The eight young skiers included Park Hyuk, Kim Dong-woo, Kim Seol-kyung and Lee Dong-geun, while former Alpine medalists Han Sang-min and Lee Chi-won also took part in the Olympic training. Korea held the FIS Ski World Cup, the first of 24 test events for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games.

“We still have a lot of work to do, and will continue to practice and adapt the slopes with high hopes of achieving satisfactory results at the PyeongChang Olympics,” said alpine ski racer Kim Seol-kyung in a press statement released by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Monday.

Kjetil Jansurd of Norway took home the gold at the Ski World Cup’s downhill skiing competition, clocking in at 1 minute and 41.38 seconds. This win was his sixth victory for the season, breaking his own previous record of five wins in the 1998-99 season.

The Sports Ministry said that female alpine skiers will soon begin their training down the snow-covered slopes and courses at speeds of about 140 kilometer per hour soon ahead of the 2017 FIS Ski Ladies’ World Cup on March 4-5.

The construction of the Jeongseon Alpine Centre will be fully completed by October this year.

(hkp@heraldcorp.com)