"Will 銀 and Choi Min-jeong win a medal together?" NBC said, "Choi Min-jeong has lost three consecutive 1,500m medals, and Kim Ki-li is the biggest challenger." [Milan Olympics]

*This content was translated by AI.

Choi Min-jeong and Kim Ki-li (Sungnam City Hall) are expected to compete for gold in the women's 1,500m event, which will mark the short track event finale of the 2026 Milan/Cortina D'Ampezzo Winter Olympics.

"South Korea has won gold medals four out of six times in 1,500m events at the all-time Winter Olympics," U.S. broadcaster NBC said on the 20th (Korea Standard Time), adding, "Choi Min-jeong, who won two consecutive gold medals, returned to Milan to defend the title."

NBC said, "Choi Min-jeong won four 1,500-meter gold medals at the World Championships alone and also won last year. He is a promising gold medalist who holds both the world record (2:14.354) set in 2016 and the Olympic record (2:16.831) set at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Kim Ki-li, who previously collaborated for the 3,000-meter relay gold medal, was cited as a player who would threaten Choi Min-jeong's "challenge for three consecutive Olympics."

The media said, "Choi Min-jeong's biggest competitor could be Kim Ki-li, who is a teammate of the same national team. Kim Ki-li won the 1,500m title twice this season and is the world's No. 1 player in the Winter Olympics, he said. "Choi Min-jeong and Kim Ki-li won Korea's first short track gold medal in the women's 3,000m relay on the 18th."

NBC mentioned Canada's Courtney Saro and Italy's legend Ariana Fontana, but they actually predicted the two's gold medal competition, dealing with Choi Min-jeong, who is trying to win three consecutive Olympics, and choosing Kim Ki-li as his likely competitor.

This view is no different from the previous prediction of a women's 1,500m medal by another U.S. media outlet Sports Illustrated. SI previously predicted that Kim Ki-li would win the women's 1,500m gold medal and Choi Min-jeong would win the silver medal, respectively. The women's 1,500m event was the only event in which SI predicted Korean athletes' "companion medals." The most ideal scenario is for South Korean athletes to win gold and silver medals after a good-faith competition in which they each compete without regret.

If Choi Min-jeong remains at the top, she will achieve the first short track individual event in three consecutive losses following the 2018 PyeongChang competition and the 2022 Beijing competition. Furthermore, he wrote a new history of the most medals (7 medals) for Koreans in the winter and summer Olympics and the most gold medals (5 medals) for the Korean Winter Olympics. Currently, he has won four gold medals and two silver medals in the Winter Olympics.

Kim Ki-li, the only Korean team to win a "multi-medal," is trying to win her third medal and second gold medal of the tournament. Kim Ki-li also won a bronze medal in the women's 1,000m individual event ahead of the women's 3,000m relay gold medal. If he wins the gold medal in this event, Kim Ki-li will win three medals along with two gold medals in the competition, effectively confirming the MVP of the Korean team tournament.

The women's 1500m quarter-final will be held at 4:15 a.m. on the 21st at the Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy. Kim Ki-li was in Group 1 with Canadian Kim Butang and others, Choi Min-jeong was in Group 3 with Italian Ariana Siegel, and Noh Do-hee, who competed in the 3,000m relay final, was in Group 6 with Fontana and others. In the quarterfinals, which will be held in six groups of six people from each group, the top three fastest players from each group will reach the semi-finals. The semifinals will be held at 5:02 a.m. and the long-awaited final at 6 a.m.

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*This content was translated by AI.