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Korean short track trio tops heats in women's 1,000-meter to make quarterfinals

Published: 15 Feb. 2026, 11:58

LEE JAE-LIM
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Korea’s Choi Min-jeong checks the results after finishing first in her heat to advance to the quarterfinals of the women’s 1,000-meter at the Milan Ice Skating Arena during the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan on Feb. 14. [YONHAP]

MILAN — Korea’s Choi Min-jeong, Kim Gil-li and Noh Do-hee all advanced to the quarterfinals of the women’s 1,000 meters at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.

Choi posted the fastest overall time in the preliminaries at the Milan Ice Skating Arena on Saturday, winning Heat 5 with 1:26.925 to secure her place in the next round. Kim and Noh also moved on, completing a clean sweep for the Korean trio.

Choi is one of Korea’s most accomplished short track skaters, having won back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the 1,500-meter at PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022. Her best Olympic result in the 1,000-meter is a silver medal in Beijing, and she is aiming for her first gold in the distance at these Games.

Starting third in her heat, Choi quickly moved up without expending much energy as she overtook on the inside to take second place before surging into the lead with another decisive inside pass. In the closing laps, her experience was evident as she smartly defended both the inside and outside lanes to maintain control of the race and cross the line first.

Korea’s Kim Gil-li competes in the women’s 1,000-meter preliminary round at the Milan Ice Skating Arena during the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan on Feb. 14. [YONHAP]

Kim, skating in the final Heat 8, followed a similar strategy. Running in second early on, she executed a clean inside move to take the lead and never relinquished it, finishing first with 1:29.656. Noh had earlier placed second in Heat 2 with a time of 1:30.097 to advance.

The 1,000-meter quarterfinals, semifinals and final are scheduled for Monday.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KO BONG-JUN [[email protected]]