(Olympics) Surprise no more: speed skating medalist wants to be known for work ethic

유지호 / 2022-02-12 20:16:04

(Olympics) speed skating medalist-reaction

▲ Cha Min-kyu of South Korea poses for photos during the victory ceremony after winning silver in the men's 500m speed skating race at the Beijing Winter Olympics at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing on Feb. 12, 2022. (Yonhap)

▲ Cha Min-kyu of South Korea competes in the men's 500m speed skating race at the Beijing Winter Olympics at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing on Feb. 12, 2022. (Yonhap)

▲ Cha Min-kyu of South Korea celebrates his silver medal in the men's 500m speed skating race at the Beijing Winter Olympics at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing on Feb. 12, 2022. (Yonhap)

(Olympics) speed skating medalist-reaction

(Olympics) Surprise no more: speed skating medalist wants to be known for work ethic

By Yoo Jee-ho

BEIJING, Feb. 12 (Yonhap) -- When South Korean speed skater Cha Min-kyu won his first career Olympic silver medal at PyeongChang 2018, it immediately came with the tag "surprise." He hadn't been seen as a medal contender, let alone someone who would finish just 0.01 second out of gold.

But Cha and his family resented that label, knowing how hard the skater had been training for that medal. They didn't appreciate the insinuation Cha had somehow stumbled upon that prize and hadn't entirely deserved it.

Turn the clock forward to 2022. Once again, Cha wasn't among the pre-Olympic medal favorites in Beijing. And yet again, Cha came through with the silver medal Saturday. He clocked 34.39 seconds, 0.07 back of the Olympic record time set by Gao Tingyu of China.

Given his form heading into Beijing 2022, Cha's second straight silver seems almost tailor-made to be called another "surprise" medal. After all, he was only 11th overall in the most recent International Skating Union World Cup season and hadn't won anything noteworthy for some time.

Still, Cha himself would like to be known for something else.

"I hope people will see the side of me that has been working so hard over the years," Cha said in his media scrum after the victory ceremony at the National Speed Skating Oval. "Though I wasn't putting up great results, I hope people realize that I never stopped working."

Cha admitted he was driven particularly hard for Beijing to prove his PyeongChang silver medal hadn't been a fluke.

"Even though I didn't win gold, I still got my second straight silver," said Cha, who is the first South Korean male speed skater to win back-to-back medals in the spring event. "I think I proved how much I've worked over the years. I think I've truly earned this medal."

The 30 skaters in the field Saturday were divided into 15 pairs. Cha skated in the 10th pair, and in the seventh tandem, Gao set an Olympic record time of 34.32 seconds, much to the delight of the partisan Chinese fans.

The crowd was still buzzing by the time Cha stepped up to the starting line, but the South Korean said he hadn't paid much mind to the record.

"I was only thinking about doing my race," Cha said. "I figured my time would be good enough for a medal, although coming up only 0.07 second short stings a little bit."

Cha had to wait for 10 remaining skaters to finish and see if his time would hold up.

"I was praying hard," Cha said with a smile. "I was pretty nervous waiting for the races to finish."

(END)