China short-track men's team member Lin Xiaojun (Korean name Im Hyo-jun) failed to smile on the Olympic stage he returned to after eight years. He had to leave the Milan ice without winning a single medal in either individual or team events.
Lin Xiaojun recorded 40.638 in heat 3 of the men's short-track 500m round of 16 at the 2026 Milan–Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics on the 19th (Korean time) at the Milan Ice Skating Arena in Italy. However, that time was not enough to advance to the next round.
Canada's William Danzinu (40.330) and Italy's Pietro Sigel (40.392) advanced directly to the semifinals as first and second in the heat, and Canada's Maxim Laun (40.454) also survived as one of the faster third-place finishers. Lin Xiaojun finished fourth in the heat and did not even get a chance in the repechage.
The result was completely different from the pre-competition atmosphere. Lin Xiaojun had drawn expectations as a multiple-medal contender at these Olympics, but there was no turnaround once the races began. He suffered the bitter taste of elimination in the round of 16 in succession in his main events, the men's 1,500m and 1,000m, and he failed to reach the semifinal stage in the 500m, his last hope.
The team events followed the same pattern. The mixed relay competed in the round of 16, but the team finished fourth in the final. In the men's 5,000m relay, they contested the semifinal race, but the Chinese team as a whole failed to advance to the final, ending medal hopes early.
This Olympics meant more than a simple comeback for Lin Xiaojun. He received a one-year suspension of athlete eligibility from the Korea Skating Union during national team training in June 2019 due to an unsavory incident, and he later chose to naturalize to China. At the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, competing under the Taeguk mark, he won one gold and one bronze and emerged as the next ace of Korean short-track.
However, the majesty of those days was hardly visible on this Italian stage where he skated under the five-star red flag. He, who could not compete at the 2022 Beijing Games either, was eligible to compete at these Olympics only after at least three years of inactivity under the International Skating Union (ISU) nationality change rules.
Lin Xiaojun sought a comeback at the Olympics after eight years, but evaluations say the realities of lingering injury aftereffects and age presented steep obstacles. China had centered its strategy on Lin Xiaojun as the "card discarded by Korea," but in the end strategic revisions became unavoidable.
Meanwhile, Canada's Steven Dubois won the gold medal in the men's 500m final. Dutch skaters Meller and the Jens Van't Wout brothers split the silver and bronze medals, respectively. Danzinu, ranked world No. 1 and a strong favorite to win, received a penalty in the final and ended the individual events with no medal, an unexpected outcome.
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