BEIJING– South Korean short track speed skater Kwak Yoon-gy had decided Beijing 2022 would be his last Winter Olympics, long before traveling to the Chinese capital.
And with the start of his third Winter Games just around the corner, Kwak, 32, can’t wait to find out how he will feel when it’s all said and done.
“I am really looking forward to this Olympics, but at the same time, I am worried that I am going to be too emotional,” Kwak told reporters after the national team’s first training sessions at Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing Monday. “No matter how I finish my career, I hope I feel a sense of relief.”
Kwak helped South Korea to a silver medal in the men’s 5,000m relay in Vancouver a dozen years ago. He missed the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics with injuries, but returned in time for PyeongChang 2018, the first Winter Games to take place in South Korea.
He failed to win a medal on home ice, and Kwak said the missed opportunity gnaws at him to this day.
“I didn’t feel like I left everything out on the ice at PyeongChang,” Kwak said. “I want to do everything I’ve set out to do here in Beijing.”
Kwak dyed his hair pink and he said it’s a nod to the red hair that he sported in Vancouver.
“I wanted to have a similar color to the one I had for my first Olympics,” Kwak said. “I wanted to go back to the same mindset that I had back then. And if I can wrap up my career in a positive way, it will send the right message to a younger generation of skaters.”
The elder statesman on the national team, Kwak will also be one of South Korea’s two flag bearers at Friday’s opening ceremony. The decision to select the flamboyant athlete to carry the national flag surprised Kwak himself.
“I tend to show a lot of personality, and the Korean sports world is quite conservative. I never even dreamed I’d be named a flag bearer,” Kwak said. “I can check off another box now.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency