Choi Min-jung Eyes 1000m Gold Tonight at Milan-Cortina 2026

South Korean short track star Choi Min-jung will chase gold in the women's 1000m event at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, looking to shake off early disappointments at the Games.

Choi will compete in the medal races starting with the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Korean time Sunday at the Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy. The final is scheduled for approximately 8:47 p.m.

While the 1500m is typically considered her signature event, Choi demonstrated strong competitiveness in the 1000m by winning silver at the Beijing Winter Olympics four years ago. In that final, she finished just 0.052 seconds behind gold medalist Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands.

Choi has yet to medal at these Games. She failed to reach the final in the mixed team relay and was eliminated in the 500m semifinals—a result that left her visibly emotional.

However, she regained confidence by posting the fastest qualifying time of 1 minute 26.925 seconds in the 1000m preliminaries on Saturday, then leading Team Korea to the 3000m relay final with two comeback performances.

In the quarterfinals, Choi will face Italy's "living legend" Arianna Fontana, Kim Boutin of Canada, Chiara Betti of Italy, and Poland's Gabriela Topolska in Heat 1.

Fellow Korean skaters Kim Gil-li and Noh Do-hee also advanced through the preliminaries and will compete from the quarterfinals.

As the short track schedule reaches its midpoint, South Korea has collected two medals: silver from Hwang Dae-heon in the men's 1500m and bronze from Lim Jong-eon in the men's 1000m.

Hwang and Lim will compete together in the men's 500m preliminaries and the 5000m relay semifinals on Sunday. Lim is eager to redeem himself after a shocking quarterfinal exit in his main event, the 1500m.