"I don't want to settle for the title of 'first' Korean to win five Winter Paralympic medals. I want to grow into an athlete who constantly improves — someone whose future is even more exciting than her past."
Kim Yun-ji, the 20-year-old cross-country skier and biathlete from BDH Paras who was named Most Valuable Player of the Korean delegation at the 2026 Milano-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Paralympics, made the remarks at a press conference held at the Olympic Hall in Songpa-gu, Seoul, on Monday. "A lot of luck went into winning these two gold and three silver medals," Kim said. "These are records that someone else would have achieved even if I hadn't. More talented athletes will keep coming after me."
Kim wrote a new chapter in Korean sports history at her first Paralympics. Competing across cross-country skiing and biathlon, she collected two gold and three silver medals. The five medals mark the most won by a Korean athlete at any single Olympic or Paralympic Games, summer or winter. She is also the first Korean athlete to win two gold medals at a Winter Paralympics, and the first Korean female athlete to win Winter Paralympic gold.
Reflecting on the significance of her debut, Kim described her first Paralympics as "like the gray traced letters you follow when you first learn to write." She added, "This experience will help me prepare much better for the next four years and will be a great asset to my athletic career." She then smiled and said, "If I had known I would win gold, I would have studied English harder so I could have done better in on-site interviews."
