Korean athletes will participate in all nine events in the bobsleigh, skeleton and luge disciplines at the upcoming Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

A total of 16 Korean athletes will take part in the three disciplines at the Sochi games which will begin February 7 in Sochi, Russia.



In the two bobsleigh sports, Korea is fielding ten bobsleigh athletes and two skeleton athletes. In the sport of luge, Korea has four athletes. Altogether, this sets a new benchmark in Korea’s sled-sport history. They are part of the 71-strong Team Korea that will represent the country at the Sochi games. This is so far the largest contingent of Korean athletes to be sent to a Winter Games in the history of Korea’s Winter Olympics participation.

Korean athletes are continuing their training, hoping to get better times in all the competitions that will be held at the Sanki Sliding Center, where all bobsleigh, skeleton and luge events will be held during the Sochi games. The bobsleigh, skeleton and luge teams hope to rank in the top-15 in the games. “Our goal is to rank in the top-15, amongst the 30 teams in the games. Based on our experience in Sochi, we hope to gain an even better result at the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games,” said Lee Yong, coach of the national bobsleigh team.

Koreans and the Korean media are expecting a “Korean bobsleigh miracle" in Sochi. The team has been keeping up its good work in earlier competitions. It gained five gold medals in the America Cup in Lake Placid, NY, the final event of the season last month, winning tickets to all bobsledding events in Sochi.



In fact, Korea is not traditionally a strong country in terms of sledding winter sports, including bobsleigh. In the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010, the Korean bobsleigh team did not even have its own sleds. They trained on asphalt instead of on an ice track, as in “Cool Runnings”, a 1993 Disney movie based on the true story of the Jamaican bobsleigh team. In 2009, participants in “Infinite Challenge,” a popular reality TV show on Korea’s MBC, showed the teamwork and training necessary to succeed in bobsleigh by taking part in the sport themselves. This raised the nation’s interest in the newly-discovered sled sport.



The Korean bobsleigh, skeleton and luge teams have already created a mini-miracle by winning a place in all nine sledding events to be held in the three disciplines at the Sochi games by enduring a lot of hardship through their “hellish training.” All 16 sled athletes, however, including members of the female bobsleigh team, which will be participating in their first Olympic games, are determined to make another miracle come true. Skeleton athlete Yoon Seongbin won gold last year in international competitions after only starting his skeleton career a year and a half ago. All three sled teams hope to emulate such success.

The athletes begin their Olympic experience with qualification races in the one-man skeleton event on February 14, followed by the two-man bobsleigh, two-woman bobsleigh and four-man bobsleigh.

There are three medals up for grabs in the bobsleigh: two-man, four-man and two-woman. In skeleton, there is a men’s and a women’s medal. Finally, in luge, there is the men’s singles, women’s singles, doubles and team relay.

By Jeon Han, Yoon Sojung
Korea.net Staff Writers
hanjeon@korea.kr