Change in strategy sees speed skater Kim Min-sun fall short in Milan

Kim Min-sun after finishing her 500-meter run at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Milano Speed Skating Stadium in Milan on Feb. 15. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

 
The scoreboard at Milan's speed skating stadium didn't show the result Kim Min-sun was aiming for, but the 26-year-old is already brushing herself off and aiming for the next Olympics. 
 
"I don't know where to begin, it doesn't feel satisfying and I'm 99 percent disappointed," Kim told reporters after finishing 14th in the women's 500-meter speed skating in Italy on Sunday. 
 
Kim, who had arrived at the Games expected to step into the skates of Korea's greatest-ever speed skater, was hoping for a podium finish. Instead, she only marginally managed to improve on her 18th-place finish in the women's 100 meters on Feb. 9,
 
"But it's over and I can't regret anything or blame anyone right now," she said. 
 

Kim Min-sun in the speed skating women's 500 meter during the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Milano Speed Skating Stadium in Milan on Feb. 15. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

 
For many, receiving a moniker that draws a comparison to a living legend feels more like a heavy burden, not a blessing. But for Kim, that wasn't the case. Kim was first dubbed "Little Lee Sang-hwa" early in her career before her nickname was upgraded to “Post Lee Sang-hwa” after she struck the Korean speed skating scene like lightning in 2017. Lee is a legendary speed skater and a two-time Olympic champion who won gold at Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014, followed by a silver at the PyeongChang 2018 — where she shared a room with Kim at the Olympic Village.
 

 
Kim won gold in the 500 meters at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics and in 2017, at the age of 18, she set the junior world record for women’s 500 meters with a time of 37.78 seconds, beating Lee’s 2007 record of 37.78 seconds. She also set a new Korean national record in the women’s 1,000 meters at the ISU World Cup with a time of 1:13.66 in 2024, besting Lee’s record by 0.24 seconds. 
 
“It didn’t feel like a burden then, nor does it feel like one now,” she said of the nickname during an interview with the Seoul Shinmun daily ahead of the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. “It means that a lot of people are giving me trust and considering me as someone who can do as well as Lee Sang-hwa, and it turns into a stimulant for me to try harder.”
  

Kim Min-sun answers questions after finishing third at the ISU Speed Skating World Cup, at Incheon International Airport on Dec. 16, 2025 [YONHAP]

 

Kim’s Olympic debut in 2018, on home turf, was supposed to be the stage where she would prove to be the next speed skating face of the country.
 
But just a week before her race, Kim suffered a severe back injury during a practice session, to the extent that she couldn’t bend over properly — a pose inseparable from speed skating.
 
This resulted in a 16th-place finish in the 500 meters, a “disappointment” for Kim.
 
Four years later, she climbed nine spots to finish seventh at the Beijing Olympics. It wasn’t a podium finish, nor was she fully satisfied with the results, but it showed that she was nearing a return to contention for medals.
 
Kim clinched the gold at the 2020 Four Continents and at the 2023 World University Games in January, but she hit her peak as the 2022-23 season unfolded, taking home five gold medals during the ISU World Cup season. While the Korean speed skater missed out on a sixth gold medal to achieve a perfect clean sweep, the five golds earned in Norway, Netherlands, Canada and Poland — on top of a silver medal earned at the final World Cup race — put her at the top of the world rankings.
 

Kim Min-sun practices at the Milano Speed Skating stadium in Milan on Feb. 5. [YONHAP]

 
The season proved to be a turning point for Kim, who took on a bold change in strategy. After recognizing that she suffered from exhaustion and reduced stamina as the season progressed, she decided to change her training style and equipment. 
 
Instead of going full-force for the entirety of the season as she did in her previous years, Kim decided to focus more on her season-long pace management so that she could maintain her performance at the Olympics, which come toward the end of the season.
 
“I went for a completely different training routine, completely opposite of what I’ve been doing in past years,” she said during a 2025 interview published on Olympics.com.
 
The new strategy was a gamble. It came with a noticeable hit to her world rankings, as Kim’s ranking dropped to 11th and she finished in 17th place in women’s 500 meters in the 2024-25 season. While she managed a rebound to finish third at the World Cup in Norway in December with a time of 37.835 seconds, the momentum didn't continue to Milan. 
 
Her change of plan ultimately didn't yield Kim her first medal at the Olympics. 
 
"I learned a lot from my previous Olympic expereinces and especially because I had been delivering good results since Beijing, I really thought I could show a good performance this time," she said. 

"I prepared harder than ever, but I think I missed something along the way." 
 

Kim Min-sun, right, and Italy's Serena Pergher compete in the speed skating women's 500m during the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Milano Speed Skating Stadium in Milan on Feb. 15, [AFP/YONHAP]

 
But it's still far from the endgame for Kim, who was crystal clear in giving yet another chance. 
 
"I'm not going to retire just yet, so I'll be taking this as another learning experience and work for my next season and the next Olympics," the speed skater said. "I'll try harder again and I'll make myself 100 percent confident."


BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]