By Charles Audouin
Photos = Lee Jun Young

The launch ceremony for the national team competing in the 2025 Winter Games in Harbin, China, was held on Jan. 24, two weeks before the games begin, at the Seoul Olympic Parktel in the Songpa-gu District of the capital.

About 200 people participated in the event, including Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Yu In Chon, Korean Sport and Olympic Committee President-elect Ryu Seung-min, and Korea Ski Snowboard Association Chairman Choi Hong-hoon, also head of the Korean team, to encourage the athletes.

In his congratulatory speech, Minister Yu said, "Please train safely until the games end in your respective fields and perform your best without regrets and give joy to the people."

"We hope that you demonstrate the paragon of sportsmanship to all of Asian community."


Slated to be held from Feb. 7-14 in China’s Heilongjiang Province, the 2025 Asian Winter Games will have a record 1,300 participating athletes from 34 countries. This is the first time in eight years that the Asian Winter Games has been held since Sapporo in Japan in 2017.

Korea will send 223 team members (composed of 149 athletes and 74 board members) to compete in six events including on ice (figure, short track and speed), skiing (alpine, cross country, freestyle and snowboard), the biathlon, curling, ice hockey and mountain skiing.

Korea clinched 16 gold medals in the 2017 Sapporo Winter Games and ranked second overall and is aiming to do this again this year.


Figure skater Cha Jun-hwan and half-pipe snowboarder Lee Chae-un have shown skills in their respective fields and are expected to excel.

The Korean team is likely to win gold medals in short track, with star Choi Min-jeong winning consecutive gold medals in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Park Ji Won, Kim Gilli and Kim Minsun won several times in the International Skating Union's Short Track Speed Skating World Cup series and are also expected to demonstrate their prowess again.

Choi Hong-hoon, head of the national team, said, "Please have pride as the protagonists of the games, do your best to achieve your goals and also, please do your best to show fair play."

The main batch of national athletes and staff will depart on Feb. 4 for Harbin.

caudouin@korea.kr