Korea shows hint of future potential at Beijing Paralympics

The Korean ice hockey crew greet spectators after the Para Ice Hockey Bronze Medal Sport between Korea and China of the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Video games at Nationwide Indoor Stadium in Beijing on Saturday. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

The Korean ice hockey crew huddle earlier than the match in opposition to Italy at Nationwide Indoor Stadium in Beijing on Wednesday. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

 
Staff Korea rounded off the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympics with the boys’s alpine snowboarding occasions on Sunday, ending 10 days of superhuman athletes defying overwhelming odds, private tragedy and unbelievable obstacles.
 
Greater than 600 of the world’s greatest Paralympic athletes from 51 nations competed in 78 occasions throughout six sports activities on the Beijing Paralympics, with Staff Korea sending an 82-member delegation, together with 32 athletes who competed in all 78 occasions. 
 
Regardless of leaving Beijing with none medals, Korea’s Paralympians nonetheless put up an excellent struggle and go away the video games with some promising indicators for the longer term.
 
The Korean ice hockey crew got here closest to medaling in Beijing, making it to the bronze medal sport however dropping to China on Saturday. Staff Korea, who had clinched the bronze medal on the 2018 PyeongChang Paralympics, went into the match seeking to safe that medal for the second straight Video games nevertheless it was China that ended up successful 4-0.  
 
Regardless of lacking out on a medal, the Korean ice hockey crew leaves the Video games proud, having reached the semifinals on the large stage for the second time in a row after beating Italy 4-0 on Wednesday.
 
That win in opposition to Italy was as a lot because of spectacular objective preserving from Choi Hyuk-jun and Lee Jae-woong because it was the offensive efficiency of Jang and the opposite forwards. Italy had almost as many photographs as Korea, with 15 to Korea’s 17, however Choi and Lee Jae-woong had been capable of save each single one.
 

Shin Eui-hyun competes within the males’s center distance sitting biathlon occasion on Tuesday on the Zhangjiakou Nationwide Biathlon Centre in the course of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Video games. [AFP/YONHAP]

Hwang Min-gyu in motion throughout his first run of the boys’s slalom occasion on the Nationwide Alpine Snowboarding Centre, Yanqing district, Beijing on Sunday. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

 
Korea alpine skiers additionally head house after a promising run on the Beijing snow, with Han Sang-min and Hwang Min-gyu ending their respective males’s tremendous mixed occasions in seventh place on Monday, the most effective two particular person outcomes for Staff Korea on the Beijing Paralympic Video games. Han competed within the sitting competitors and Hwang within the visually impaired occasion. Han and Hwang each failed to complete their closing race on Sunday on the males’s slalom occasions.
 
Cross nation skier Shin Eui-hyun, Korean Paralympic royalty and the nation’s solely gold medalist ever, had his greatest consequence on the Winter Video games within the males’s cross-country lengthy distance sitting 18-kilometer race and males’s biathlon particular person sitting 12.5-kilometer biathlon race, ending eighth each occasions. 
 
Nonetheless, numbers do not absolutely illustrate how spectacular Shin’s achievement in Beijing is, as he accomplished three cross-country races and three biathlon races, all with pretty aggressive occasions, at 41-years-old.
 
In addition to Korea’s solely gold medal ever, Shin can be the one Korean ever to obtain two medals at one Paralympics, successful bronze within the males’s 15-kilometer sitting cross-country snowboarding and gold within the males’s 7.5-kilometer sitting cross-country snowboarding in Pyeongchang.
 

Korea’s Baek Hye-jin prepares to take her shot throughout a spherical robin match in opposition to Sweden on the Nationwide Aquatics Heart in Beijing on Thursday. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

 
One different sport that Korea narrowly missed out on an opportunity in is wheelchair curling, because the crew failed to succeed in the semifinals regardless of taking a giant 10-4 win in opposition to Sweden on Thursday. With solely 4 groups advancing, Korea completed in sixth place with 5 wins and 5 losses. 
 
The Korean wheelchair curling crew is at the moment ranked at No. 5 on this planet. On the PyeongChang Video games the crew narrowly missed out on a medal, dropping 5-3 to Canada within the bronze medal match.
 
Regardless of lacking out on a medal on the Beijing Paralympics, beating bronze medalists Canada 9-4 in the course of the spherical robin reveals the crew’s potential.
 
The Korean Paralympics crew flew to Beijing searching for two bronze medals, however that wasn’t to be. However that Korea was capable of compete in so many occasions remains to be exceptional contemplating the nation’s relative lack of expertise on the Video games. Korea has solely ever received a complete of 1 gold, two silver and two bronze medals since first competing on the 1992 France Para Video games.  
 
The Paralympic baton might be handed to Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo on Sunday night, the place the 2026 Winter Paralympics will happen.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]