Korea struggles to maintain presence on ice

By 임정요

Published : March 29, 2016 - 16:14

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South Korea is struggling to maintain its once-high profile in figure skating.

Tension is especially high now, with the 2016 ISU World Figure Skating Championships set to take off on Wednesday in Boston, U.S.

The future number of skaters allowed to participate in subsequent championships will change according to how Korean contenders fare.

Less than two years remain until South Korea hosts the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018, and the country’s goal is to at least maintain the current number of participants from South Korea allowed to join the games.

Competing in this round’s Boston championship are 19-year-old Park So-youn and 16-year-old Choi Da-bin in the women’s single, and 20-year-old Lee Joon-hyung in the men’s single.

Park So-youn (left) and Choi Da-bin (right) pose with Olympic champion Kim Yun-a (center) in 2013's KB Financial Group Figure Skating championship (Yonhap)

If Park and Choi’s combined rankings are lower than the number 28, two participants from South Korea will be allowed to continue to join the women’s single. If the number is lower than 13, an additional third skater will be allowed to join.

However, if Park and Choi’s combined rankings go over 28, South Korea will only be allowed to enter one figure skater at the next international championship.

Korea had clinched its current 20th spot in world rankings for figure skating by bagging two gold, silver, and bronze medals each. All of them were won by figure-skating Olympic champion Kim Yun-a, who announced her retirement three years ago.

No Korean figure skater has since come close to Kim’s achievements.

Park, who will skate in Boston, is so far the best-performing South Korean figure skater, although her performance is far below Kim’s level. Park came in ninth in the women’s single category in 2014.

The ISU championship will run for four days. The male and female singles events will take place on Thursday morning, Korea time zone.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)

Korea struggles to maintain presence on ice

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