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By Sunday, Korea had swept gold and silver medals in three of the four short-track competitions in the Winter Olympics. According to the Japanese press, Korean's training in the field is astounding, and the performance created an almost equal buzz in China. The U.S. media weren¡¯t slow to point out that the Koreans had no problem doing away with Apolo Anton Ohno and perhaps had now avenged the disqualification of Korean skater Kim dong-sung in the Salt Lake City Winter Games four years ago.
The driving force behind "short-track Korea" is two-fold: training and investment. Athletes on the national team, unlike their international counterparts, build their strength even in the off-season with different equipment and surface tracks. The winner of the women's 1,500 m, Jin Sun-yu, engages in a fierce 10-hour-a-day regimen.
Short track skating was an exhibition game in the 1988 Calgary Games, and Koreans spotted that sporting ¡°blue ocean¡± and were determined to make it their own. Judging that technique is crucial for this small track measuring only 111.12 m and suited Koreans with their relatively small figures, they took promising speed skaters and fostered them. At first, Korean technique was inferior to Canada¡¯s and Japan¡¯s, so they focused on physical training for strength, which became a tradition they still adhere to. The typical final spurt and the endurance come from physical training twice as hard as foreign athletes¡¯.
In Turin, the team secured more time than expected for field training. There were supposed to be 15 practice sessions including during the games, but the Koreans managed to squeeze in 29 sessions.
In short track, corner work accounts for some 50 percent of the entire race, so the performance there has a huge influence on the outcome. Korean athletes¡¯ secret of success is their so-called ¡°corner belt¡± training, where athletes run around with a rubber belt on their waists. It is held by the coach, so athletes learn how to balance themselves without fear of falling. Because they have this confidence in corner work, Korean skaters can make the decision whether they go around the inside of the line with one foot or move outward with two feet.
In addition, a scientific study of how much the edge of a skate leans toward the inside has produced a design where the skate bends inward just a tad, and with ¡°bending¡± technology came a leap in speed during cornering. Video analysis helped correct flaws in starting motions, another credit to Korean superiority in the discipline.
The future is bright. Even though there are only 420 registered athletes -- a relatively small number -- promising young talent is continuously emerging. The number of indoor ice rinks for short track training has grown to as many as 40 nationwide over the past four to five years.
That is one indication of how investment has been growing. The Korea Skating Union (KSU) annually pours W800 million (US$80,000) into supporting all competitions of the world cup series and the world championship and an annual 30 to 40 days of field training. The KSU went to Turin for field study and investigated training rinks a year ago.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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