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[스포츠뉴스]Jung Hye-sun snags Korea's only luge spot at the Winter Olympics

온카뱅크관리자

2026-01-28 13:39:00

<div class="ab_photo photo_center ab_zoom"> <div class="image"> <img src="https://imgnews.pstatic.net/image/640/2026/01/28/0000083669_001_20260128134016156.jpg" alt="" />Jung Hye-sun competes during the women's singles race at the Luge World Cup in Sigulda, Latvia, on Jan. 3. [EPA/YONHAP] </div> </div> Korea was poised to miss out on participating in the luge event at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games. Then, Jung Hye-sun, who previously missed two straight Olympics due to injuries and a crash during qualifications, secured the country’s only spot for the event. From Sochi in 2014 to Beijing in 2022, Korea consistently sent athletes in all luge disciplines &#8212; men’s and women’s singles, doubles and team relay &#8212; but the contenders failed to carry that momentum for this year's Olympics, except for Jung. "It still doesn’t feel real,” Jung, 30, said during a phone call with the JoongAng Ilbo on Monday. “I’ve waited 12 years for this. Now that I’m finally here, I want to show what I’m capable of without regrets.” Jung’s athletic journey didn’t begin on ice. She started in weightlifting in middle school after her cousin suggested she try it, but she never stood out in her first three years. She got to know luge shortly before entering high school, which changed her athletic path. “I remember it was sometime before the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics,” Jung said. “PyeongChang had already secured the bid to host the Games, and an older teammate who was working in the county as a weightlifting coach introduced me to luge after hearing about it. “There were barely any women in Korea who actually knew how to luge. My teammate told me that if I just made it through the national trials, I could immediately join the national team. I was skeptical, but I decided to prepare anyway.” As a former weight lifter, Jung easily passed the strength and speed tests and made it to the national team. But her path to the Olympics was anything but steady. <div class="ab_photo photo_center ab_zoom"> <div class="image"> <img src="https://imgnews.pstatic.net/image/640/2026/01/28/0000083669_002_20260128134016269.jpg" alt="" />Jung Hye-sun trains at the Olympic Sliding Center in Pyeongchang, Gangwon, on Feb. 16, 2025. [KOREA LUGE FEDERATION] </div> </div> Ahead of the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, Jung suffered a major setback during summer training when she crashed, breaking her arm and collarbone and forcing her to withdraw. Four years later, during a training run for the 2022 Beijing qualification, her sled overturned and she had to pull out again. But this year, Jung finally saw her Olympic bid come to fruition. “Even when I heard I had qualified, I wasn’t sure it was real,” she said. “I only felt relief after I saw the International Luge Federation announcement. One of my old weightlifting friends joked, ‘You’re going to the Olympics at your age?’” Luge is the fastest of the sliding sports, with athletes racing feet-first on their backs and steering with subtle shifts of their shoulders and legs. Speeds can exceed 130 kilometers per hour (80 miles per hour) in the men’s event and approach 120 in the women’s event. “It’s like riding a roller coaster with no safety bar &#8212; and you’re steering it,” she said. “That’s what makes luge so thrilling. "My best finish in an international race is 17th. I really want to finish in the top 10. Winning a medal will be tough, but I want to perform well just to show people what luge is." The 2026 Winter Olympics begin on Feb. 6 and run through Feb. 22. This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

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