(Olympics) S. Korea finally gets on board with speed skating bronze

▲ South Korean speed skater Kim Min-seok celebrates his bronze medal in the men's 1,500m race of the Beijing Winter Olympics during the victory ceremony at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing on Feb. 8, 2022. (Yonhap)

▲ South Korean figure skater Cha Jun-hwan performs his short program in the men's singles competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics at Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing on Feb. 8, 2022. (Yonhap)

▲ Lee Sang-ho of South Korea competes in the quarterfinals of the men's parallel giant slalom snowboard event at the Beijing Winter Olympics at Genting Snow Park P & X Stadium in Zhangjiakou, some 180 kilometers northwest of Beijing, on Feb. 8, 2022. (Yonhap)

(Olympics) S Korea recap-Day 4

(Olympics) S. Korea finally gets on board with speed skating bronze

By Yoo Jee-ho

BEIJING, Feb. 8 (Yonhap) -- Four days into the competition, South Korea finally has its first medal of Beijing 2022.

Speed skater Kim Min-seok delivered some much-needed bit of good news with his bronze medal in the men's 1,500m at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing. He clocked at 1:44.24, 1.03 seconds behind the champion, Kjeld Nuis of the Netherlands. Another Dutch skater, Thomas Krol, took the silver medal in 1:43.55.

It was Kim's second straight bronze medal in the 1,500m. He is the only Asian skater to win a medal in this distance.

The medal provided a timely respite for a nation reeling from officiating controversy in short track speed skating.

Before Kim, figure skater Cha Jun-hwan did his part to give South Korea something to cheer about, as he ranked fourth after the short program with a new personal best of 99.51 points.

He looks poised to become the first South Korean man to crack the top 10 in Olympic figure skating. Cha holds the record for the best South Korean male performance at an Olympic Games with his 15th-place finish in 2018.

Cha executed all of his elements cleanly, including his opening quadruple salchow, and sits 6.39 points back of Shoma Uno for third place heading into Thursday's free skate.

Alpine snowboarder Lee Sang-ho didn't have as great a day, though, as the 2018 silver medalist in the men's parallel giant slalom lost in the quarterfinals to Victor Wild of the Russian Olympic Committee by 0.01 second.

Lee won the qualification to grab the top seed for the knockout phase. After winning his first race in the tournament stage, he fell to the double gold medalist from Sochi 2014 by the smallest of margins.

Though there were no short track races Tuesday, the aftermath of questionable refereeing from the previous night dominated the news cycle in the aggrieved country earlier in the day.

The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee said it plans to file a formal appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport on officiating involving South Korean short trackers.

The short track competition resumes Wednesday with the men's 1,500m, the women's 1,000m and the women's 3,000m relay.

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