Choi Min-jeong, the ace of the South Korean women's short track team, became the subject of the most-decorated Winter Olympian.
Choi Min-jeong, Kim Gil-li (both Seongnam City Hall), Noh Do-hee (Hwaseong City Hall) and Shim Suk-hee (Seoul City Hall) teamed up for South Korea and crossed the finish line in the women's 3,000-meter relay final at the 2026 Milan–Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics at the Milan Ice Skating Arena in Italy on the 19th (Korea time) in 4 minutes 04.014 seconds to take the top spot.
There was also a scare when Michelle Velzeboer of the Netherlands, who was running second, fell during the race. She nearly knocked down Choi Min-jeong, who was following behind. But the seasoned Choi Min-jeong held on. The gap with the leaders widened, but she eventually caught up and Kim Gil-li passed to cross the finish line first.
U.S. sports outlet ESPN said, "South Korea edged out Italy to win the women's 3,000-meter relay and claimed the first short track gold medal of the 2026 Winter Olympics," and noted, "The South Korean team of Choi Min-jeong, Kim Gil-li, Shim Suk-hee and Noh Do-hee crossed the finish line in 4 minutes 04.014 seconds to beat Italy and Canada. Choi Min-jeong was also part of the team that won silver at the Beijing Games four years ago," drawing attention to Choi Min-jeong.
Choi Min-jeong won gold in the women's 1,500 meters and the 3,000-meter relay at the 2018 PyeongChang Games. She then won gold in the 1,500 meters at the 2022 Beijing Games and added silver medals in the 1,000 meters and the 3,000-meter relay.
Heading into this competition, whether Choi Min-jeong would add more medals was one of the storylines. But she failed to win medals in the women's 500 meters and 1,000 meters and the mixed 2,000-meter relay earlier.
But with the 3,000-meter relay victory, Choi Min-jeong now holds six career Olympic medals (four gold, two silver) and has her first gold of these Games. She also tied the Korean athlete record for most Olympic medals across summer and winter Games with six.
She matched the summer and winter combined records of Kim Soo-nyung (archery·4 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze), Jin Jong-oh (shooting·4 gold, 2 silver) and Lee Seung-hoon (speed skating·2 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze).
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