Chung Jae-won of South Korea, center, skates between Jordan Stolz of the United States, left, and Andrea Giovannini of Italy during the final of the men's mass start speed skating event at the Winter Olympics at Milano Speed Skating Stadium in Milan, Saturday. Yonhap
MILAN — South Korea has failed to win an Olympic speed skating medal for the first time in 24 years.
South Korea ended Saturday, the final day of speed skating races at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, without reaching the podium, with Chung Jae-won finishing fifth in the men's mass start and Park Ji-woo ending up in 14th place in the women's mass start.
Chung finished with a time of 8:04.60 at Milano Speed Skating Stadium in Milan. Jorrit Bergsma of the Netherlands cruised to the gold medal in 7:55.50, and Viktor Hald Thorup of Denmark got the silver in 8:00.52.
Andrea Giovannini of Italy took the bronze in 8:04.42.
Jordan Stolz of the United States, who had won two golds and one silver earlier, finished in fourth place in 8:04.51.
Chung, 24, won a team pursuit silver medal as a 16-year-old at PyeongChang 2018, and then a mass start silver four years later in Beijing.
He was trying to become the youngest South Korean speed skater ever with at least three Olympic medals.
The mass start, held over 16 laps, is a hybrid race that combines elements of traditional speed skating with highly tactical aspects of short track speed skating. All skaters compete together, instead of in pairs like other speed skating events, and some physical contact is allowed.
Chung started the race in the back among the 16 finalists. He moved into fifth place after four laps but fell back to 12th place at the halfway mark.
Source: Korea Times News
