SEOUL– South Korea officially set sail for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on Tuesday, with its athletes hoping to inspire their weary nation during the COVID-19 pandemic with performances on slopes, ice and tracks.
South Korea will send 63 athletes and 61 officials in six sports to the Chinese capital for the Feb. 4-20 Olympics. For the team launching ceremony held at the Olympic Park in Seoul, 32 athletes and 14 officials were on hand.
Korea Skating Union President Yoon Hong-geun will lead the athletic delegation.
Beijing will be the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics, and will forge ahead amid the rapid spread of the omicron variant with stringent health and safety protocols in place.
The stated goal for South Korea, set by the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC), is rather modest: win one or two gold medals and finish among the top 15 in the medal table. South Korea has won at least five gold medals at three of the past four Winter Games, and at least two gold at every edition since 1992.
In Beijing, South Korea will be counting on medals from short track speed skating, speed skating, alpine snowboarding and curling.
At the previous Winter Games, held in the South Korean alpine town of PyeongChang four years ago, South Korea ranked seventh with five gold, eight silver and four bronze medals.
Source: Yonhap News Agency