"Lamborghili" Kim Gil-li (22, Seongnam City Hall) fulfilled her dream of conquering the women's 1000m at the World Championships—a goal that eluded her at the Olympics.
Kim clocked 1:28.843 in the women's 1000m final at the 2026 ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships held at Maurice Richard Arena in Montreal, Canada on March 14 (local time), edging out two-time Olympic individual gold medalist Suzanne Schulting's teammate Xandra Velzeboer (Netherlands, 1:28.852) to claim the gold medal. She secured victory with a photo-finish lunge at the line.
At last month's Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, Kim had to settle for bronze in this event after finishing behind Velzeboer and Courtney Sarault (Canada). She emphatically erased that disappointment at this competition.
Im Jong-eon (18, Goyang City Hall), competing in the men's 1500m, also delivered golden news. Im crossed the finish line first with a time of 2:14.974 after mounting a late comeback in the final. He prevailed with a superb finishing kick in a chaotic race featuring eight skaters.
The women's team of Kim Gil-li, Shim Suk-hee (Seoul City Hall), Lee So-yeon (Sports Toto), and Noh Ah-reum (Jeonbuk Provincial Office) finished third in the second semifinal heat of the 3000m relay, failing to advance to the final. The team, which had reclaimed the top spot in this event for the first time in eight years at the Milano Olympics, had aimed for gold at this competition but fell short at the doorstep of the final.