South Korea's first female Winter Paralympic gold medalist has emerged. The honor goes to Kim Yun-ji (19, BDH Paras), the "poster star" of Korean para sports.
Kim won gold with a time of 38 minutes 0.1 seconds in the women's biathlon sprint sitting 12.5km at the Tesero Cross-Country Stadium in Italy on March 7 local time during the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics.
In her Paralympic debut, Kim made history as the first Korean female athlete to win an individual gold medal at the Winter Paralympics.
Kim also etched her name in history as the athlete who won Korea's first gold in eight years since Shin Eui-hyun's cross-country victory at the 2018 PyeongChang Games, and the first-ever gold medal at an overseas Winter Paralympics.
After the race, Kim said, "I'm grateful to have won gold so unexpectedly. I'm especially honored that this seems to be a meaningful record for Korean sports as the first gold medal by a Korean woman."
She added, "When I saw the Korean flag in the stands before the race, I wanted to perform even better. I pushed harder because I wanted to show that Korea is a country that can compete well."
Korea has won a total of five medals in Winter Paralympic history, with three coming from individual events. Han Sang-min won the nation's first medal, a silver in men's alpine skiing at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. Shin Eui-hyun claimed one gold and one bronze in cross-country skiing at the 2018 PyeongChang Games.
The remaining two medals came from wheelchair curling (silver) at the 2010 Vancouver Games and para ice hockey (bronze) at the 2018 PyeongChang Games. Kang Mi-sook was the only female athlete among the 2010 wheelchair curling silver medal team members.
After failing to win any medals at the 2022 Beijing Games, the Korean delegation has secured its first Paralympic medal in eight years thanks to Kim's gold.
Kim, who is competing in both biathlon and cross-country skiing events at this Paralympics, will pursue additional medals in four remaining events starting with a cross-country race on March 10 Korea time. If she wins at least one more medal, she will become the second Korean athlete after Shin Eui-hyun to achieve "multiple medals" at a single Winter Paralympics.
