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Kim Gil-li in good company with three medals in short track debut

Published: 21 Feb. 2026, 11:22 Updated: 21 Feb. 2026, 12:20

Kim Gil-li of Korea celebrates after winning the gold medal in the women's 1,500-meter short track speed skating event at the Winter Olympics at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan on Feb. 20. [YONHAP]

By winning her third medal at her first Winter Olympics here in northern Italy with a gold on Friday, Korean short track speed skater Kim Gil-li joined some esteemed company.

Kim captured the women's 1,500-meter title at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan, beating teammate Korean Choi Min-jeong for the honor.

Kim, 21, had earlier won bronze in the women's 1,000 meters and anchored Korea to gold in the 3,000-meter relay.

She became the sixth Korean short tracker to win at least three medals in an Olympic debut, and the first since Shim Suk-hee at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games. Others who have done it include Ahn Hyun-soo, who won three gold medals and one bronze medal at Turin 2006, and Jin Sun-yu, a triple gold medalist in 2006.

It's a feat also accomplished by only three others outside Korea — Wang Meng of China in 2006, Charles Hamelin of Canada in 2006 and Kim Boutin of Canada in 2018.

Kim already enjoyed plenty of international success before her Olympic debut. She is a five-time world junior champion who also has four medals at senior world championships.

Kim captured the Crystal Globe as the best overall performer for the 2023-24 ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup season, on the strength of her seven gold medals and three silver medals in individual events.

Kim Gil-li of Korea, left, celebrates after winning the gold medal in the women's 1,500-meter short track speed skating event at the 2026 Winter Olympics at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan on Feb. 20. [YONHAP]

With her trio of medals, Kim upstaged Choi, her older and more accomplished teammate who had two medals in Milan.

Choi was in the lead with two laps remaining, with Kim closely trailing her. The younger Korean zipped past her over the final stretch and pulled away for her second gold in Milan.

The moment was quite symbolic. It wasn't Choi passing the torch to Kim, but Kim snatching it from the veteran and running away with it.

Kim is already nearly halfway to matching Choi's seven career medals, the most ever by a Korean Olympian, winter or summer. Given that Kim is still only 21 years old and is loaded with talent, she may even equal that mark at the next Winter Games in four years' time.

Yonhap