Korea Denied Advance After Collision in Short Track Mixed Relay

The South Korean short track team saw their gold medal hopes dashed after a collision during the 2000m mixed relay semifinal at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on February 10.

Kim Gil-li of Seongnam City Hall collided with an American skater and fell during the race at Milan Ice Skating Arena, pushing Korea to third place. Only the top two finishers advance to the final.

Choi Min-jung quickly tagged the fallen Kim and continued racing, but could not close the gap.

Coach Kim Min-jung immediately filed an appeal with referees requesting an advance, but it was rejected.

The referees ruled that Kim Gil-li was in third place at the time of the collision, making Korea ineligible for an advance.

"We were running in third place, and the American skater who was in first fell, and Gil-li couldn't avoid her and tripped," Choi said after the race. "This is exactly why people say there are so many variables in short track."

"Given the nature of the sport, this kind of situation is unavoidable," she added. "We were unlucky today, but there will be other days when luck is on our side. This was just the first event, so we'll do better in the next ones."

Choi noted that Korea would have received an advance had they been in second place. "When the team does well, we all did well together, and when we don't, we all didn't together. Today, we just didn't perform well enough."

The coaching staff said two referees explained the situation clearly. "They said they were disappointed too, but couldn't give an advance because Korea was in third place. We had no choice but to accept it."

"The judgment on this collision seems to be at the referee's discretion," the staff added. "We can't call it a bad call. But it was a situation where other countries wouldn't have complained much if they had given us an advance, so we feel unlucky."