Kim Gilli on Feb. 18 celebrates while crossing the finish line first in the final of the women's 3,000-m short track relay at the Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy.

By Yoon Sojung

Photos = Yonhap News

The national women's short track team on Feb. 18 won the gold medal in the 3,000-m relay at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy, Korea's second gold of this tournament. 

This raised the country's medal count to one gold, one silver and two bronze in short track events at these Olympics.

The team crossed the finish line first in the final at the Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan with a time of 4 minutes, 4.014 seconds, followed by Italy (4:04:107) and Canada (4:04:314).

Korea briefly took an early lead but fell to third after Canada and the Netherlands. Despite a Dutch competitor falling during the race, the women remained stable throughout the contest.

With four laps remaining, Shim Sukhee gave a powerful push to Choi Minjeong, who moved into the second spot. The final skater Kim Gilli overtook Italy for the lead and secured the come-from-behind victory with two laps left. 

This marked Korea's first gold in the event since the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

Noh Dohee, Kim and Lee Soyeon, who raced in the semifinal, all won their first Olympic gold medals. For Shim, this was her first gold since PyeongChang 2018 and her third overall in the Olympics.

Choi raised her Olympic medal count to six -- four gold and two silver -- tying the Korean mark for most golds by a Korean in a Winter Olympics with four. This tied her with short track great Chun Lee-kyung, who won four golds at Lillehammer (Norway) 1994 and Nagano (Japan) 1998.

On Feb. 20, Choi will seek to break more records in her signature event, the women's 1,500 m. She is eyeing her third straight title in the contest after winning it at PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022.

In men's short track, Hwang Daeheon on Feb. 14 finished behind Jens van 't Wout of the Netherlands for the silver in the men's 1,500 m with a time of 2 minutes, 12.304 seconds. Hwang thus won a medal in his third straight Olympics following the silver in the men's 500 m in PyeongChang and gold in the 1,500 m and silver in the 5,000 m relay in Beijing.

Following Rim Jongun's bronze on Feb. 13 in the men's 1,000 m, Kim in her Olympic debut on Feb. 16 also won the bronze in the women's 1,000 m.

The national women's team on Feb. 18 pose with their gold medals at the medal ceremony held at the Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan after winning the 3,000-m short track relay at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy. From left are Shim Sukhee, Noh Dohee, Lee Soyeon, Kim Gilli and Choi Minjeong.