The South and North Korean women’s ice hockey teams shout, ‘We are one!’ together after the North team arrives at the Jincheon National Training Center in Jincheon, Chungcheongbuk-do Province on Jan. 25. (Korean Sport & Olympic Committee)
By Kim Tae Won and Kim Young Shin
The joint team between the two Koreas that will compete in the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games took an energetic first step on Jan. 25.
The 12 North Korean athletes, their head coach Pak Chol Ho and two support staff left North Korea in the morning and headed straight to the training center in Jincheon, Chungcheongbuk-do Province, to complete the joint Korea women's ice hockey team.
A ceremony was held at the training center to welcome the athletes from the North. Lee Jae-geun, head of the Jincheon training center, presented bouquets to the North Korean athletes. “We hope to get good results by trying our best with one heart and one will,” said Lee. “We will support your comfortable stay here.”
“I’m happy to see the North and the South becoming one here,” said the North’s head coach Pak Chol Ho. “Even within a short period of time, we may get good results if we play our upcoming games with our energy and mind together.”
The joint team, with only two weeks to go until its first match, attended South Korea’s head coach Sarah Murray’s orientation on Jan. 25. Their joint training begins the following day.
This is the first time the two Koreas had a joint team in the Olympic Games. The joint women's ice hockey team will surely be a symbol of the Peace Olympics when it faces off against Switzerland on Feb. 10, Sweden on Feb. 12 and Japan on Feb. 14.
twkim0717@korea.kr
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