Speed skater Jung Huidan on Jan. 22 places second with a time of 39.64 seconds in the women's 500 m at the Gangwon Winter Youth Olympics held at the speed skating facility Gangneung Oval in Gangneung, Gangwon-do Province.

By Wu Jinhua

Photos = International Olympic Committee

The medal competition has gone into full thrust at the Gangwon Winter Youth Olympics (Gangwon 2024) in Gangwon-do Province.

Speedskater Jung Huidan (Sunsa High School) on Jan. 22 won Korea's first silver medal of the competition by placing second in the women's 500 m at the speed skating facility Gangneung Oval in Gangneung, Gangwon-do, with a time of 39.64 seconds. In the men's 500 m of the same sport, Shin Seonung (Byeollae High School) that day clinched the bronze with a time of 37.13.

Earlier on Jan. 20, short track competitor Joo Jaehee (Hankwang High School) won Korea's first gold of Gangwon 2024 in the men's 1,500 m, carrying on the nation's traditional dominance in the sport with a time of 2 minutes, 21.906 seconds. Kim Yoosung (Hankwang High School) earned the bronze in the same event with 2:22.148.

As of Jan. 23, Korea was seventh in the medal count with six -- one gold, two silver and three bronze.

At this competition, foreign athletes participated through a project launched as a legacy of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics headed by New Horizons Academy, which is jointly run by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the province's government of Gangwon-do State. Supervised by the PyeongChang 2018 Legacy Foundation, the academy trains winter sports athletes from underdeveloped and developing economies.

One such athlete, Agnese Campeol of Thailand, on Jan. 22 had a time of 1 minute, 54.17 seconds in women's monobob (single-person bobsleigh) at Alpensia Sliding Centre in Pyeongchang-gun County, Gangwon-do. By earning the silver, she won her country's first medal in a Winter Youth Olympics.

Bobsleigh athletes Sophie Ghorbal and Beya Mokrani from Tunisia became the first from their country to compete in the tournament.

Gangwon 2024 runs through Feb. 1 in the province's city of Gangneung and counties of Pyeongchang-gun, Jeongseon-gun and Hoengseong-gun, with 1,802 youth athletes from 78 countries taking part. 

Agnese Campeol of Thailand on Jan. 22 won a silver medal in women's monobob (single-person bobsleigh) at Alpensia Sliding Centre in Pyeongchang-gun County, Gangwon-do Province, her nation's first medal in a Youth Winter Olympics. She is shown that day smiling for the cameras after receiving her medal.