Members of the Korean women's short track speed skating relay team celebrate their gold medal at the Winter Olympics at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Wednesday. From left are Choi Min-jeong, Kim Gil-li, Noh Do-hee, Shim Suk-hee and Lee So-yeon. Yonhap
MILAN — Having put aside their differences in pursuit of an Olympic medal together, short track speed skaters Choi Min-jeong and Shim Suk-hee combined for gold in the women's 3,000-meter relay at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games on Wednesday.
With Shim pushing Choi from behind for exchanges, Korea held off Italy and Canada for its first short track gold medal at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan.
Choi, 27, and Shim, 29, had their first Olympics together on home ice at PyeongChang 2018. But what happened during that event dealt their tight friendship a big blow.
In late 2021, it was belatedly revealed that Shin had fired off a series of expletive-laden text messages to a national team coach during PyeongChang. In those texts, which got leaked to the media, Shim denigrated her teammates and hinted she would intentionally trip up Choi if they ended up in the same race at the Olympics.
In the women's 1,000-meter final at PyeongChang 2018, the two indeed got tangled up when Choi tried to make a pass on the outside.
Shim was suspended from the national team for two months. Although she was cleared of race-fixing charges, Choi publicly announced she no longer wanted Shim to try to get in touch with her to apologize.
Shim eventually made her way back into the national team mix, and she and Choi became teammates again.
Early on, Choi refused to let Shim push her for exchanges in the 3,000m relay, which wasn't ideal for competitive purposes.
Shim is considered the strongest skater on the women's team with an excellent relay track record, while Choi is the best all-around skater who always finds another gear in crunch time. For Korea to get the most out of its women's relay team, it needed Shim to push Choi.
Source: Korea Times News
