*This content was translated by AI.
Figure skating ace Cha Jun-hwan (25, Seoul City Hall) and speed skating star Park Ji-woo (28, Gangwon Provincial Office) became representatives of the Korean team. The two athletes were selected as the flag bearers for the opening ceremony of the 2026 Milan and Cortina D'Ampezzo Winter Olympics, which will open in February.
The Korean Olympic Committee officially announced on the 26th that Cha Jun-hwan and Park Ji-woo were chosen as the flag bearers for the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
As a result, Cha Jun-hwan and Park Ji-woo will be honored to enter the Olympic stage with the Korean national flag for the third time in their career after the 2018 Pyeongchang and 2022 Beijing Games.
Cha Jun-hwan, who is rewriting the history of Korean men's figure skating, is an ace in name and reality. At the PyeongChang competition, which was the first Olympics, he proved his possibility by ranking 15th, the highest in Korean men's history, and four years later at the Beijing competition, he ranked 5th, breaking his own record.
The momentum continued. At the 2025 Harbin Winter Asian Games held in February last year, Cha Joon-hwan won the first Asian Games gold medal in Korean men's history with 281.69 points, including 94.09 points in short program and 187.60 points in free skating. In this Olympics, he will compete in men's singles and team events and hunt for medals.
Park Ji-woo, the women's long-distance star, will also be on the Olympic stage for the third consecutive time since the PyeongChang competition. His skills have also improved this season. Park Ji-woo won the bronze medal in the third World Cup mass start and harvested his first World Cup medal. With her rise, she aims for her first Olympic medal in the women's 1,500m and mass start competitions.
Cabbage Boy Lee Sang-ho (31, Nexen) and Short Track Empress Choi Min-jeong (28, Seongnam City Hall) were appointed as captains to lead the team. This is also the third time for the two athletes to participate in the Olympics.
Lee Sang-ho, a national snowboarder, won a silver medal in the parallel competition at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, making him the first Korean athlete to win a medal in snow events. Choi Min-jeong is a legend who has won three gold medals in the Olympics alone, including two gold medals at the PyeongChang competition and one gold medal at the Beijing competition. He is trying to win his fourth gold medal in this competition.
The Milan-Cortina D'Ampezzo Winter Olympics will open on February 6 and will be held for 17 days until the 22nd. More than 2,900 athletes from 90 countries will compete for 116 gold medals in eight sports and 16 sub-sports. The opening ceremony will be held at 2 a.m. on the 7th (Korea Standard Time) at San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy.
South Korea will send a total of 71 athletes in six events to the event. Including 59 executives, the size of the team is about 130. The number of athletes increased by six from the previous competition, the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
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*This content was translated by AI.
