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| Short track team athletes hold official training at the multipurpose hall of the Harbin Heilongjiang Ice and Training Center in China on the afternoon of the 5th (local time), two days before the opening of the Harbin Winter Asian Games. |
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| Harbin Winter Asian Games | a day before the opening
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| Graphic=Yonhap News |
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The Harbin Winter Asian Games, the first Asian winter sports festival in eight years, will open on the 7th.
The 2025 Harbin Winter Asian Games will be held at the Harbin International Convention and Exhibition Sports Center in China at 9 p.m. on the 7th (Korea time).
The competition, which will be held for the first time in eight years since the 2017 Sapporo Games, will feature 1,300 people from 34 countries, the most in the history of the Winter Asian Games, competing for 64 gold medals in 6 sports and 11 sub-sports from the 7th to the 14th. The ice skating event will be held in Harbin City, and the snow event will be held in Yabuli, about 200 kilometers from Harbin. South Korea has sent a total of 222 athletes in six sports (148 athletes, 53 sports officials and 22 headquarters officials).
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| South Korea's Kim Kyung-ae pitches in a game between South Korea and China in Group B of curling mix and double at the Pingfang Curling Arena in Harbin, China on the 6th. |
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| South Korea's Sung Ji-hoon pitches in a game between South Korea and China in Group B of curling mix double at the Pingfang Curling Arena in Harbin, China on the 6th. |
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The opening ceremony will be directed by director Xiao-ran, general director of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics closing ceremony and the opening and closing ceremony of the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games. Last season's Asian League Ice Hockey regular league MVP Lee Chong-min (Bloomington Bisons) and curling 5G skip Kim Eun-ji (Gyeonggi Provincial Government) will be the riders of the Korean team. South Korea, which ranked second overall after Japan with 16 gold medals, 18 silver, and 16 bronze medals in Sapporo, is aiming for 11 gold medals, 7 silver, 20 bronze, and 3rd overall.
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| Graphic=Yonhap News |
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Expect six gold medals in short track, two in speed skating, and one each in alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, and curling. Choi Min-jeong and Kim Ki-li (Sungnam City Hall) aim to win the title in all women's short track events. Park Ji-won (Seoul Metropolitan Government) is also a candidate for the top spot in the world rankings of the International Skating Union (ISU) World Cup in the 2023-2024 season. The competition with Lin Xiaojun (Im Hyojun), who was naturalized to China in 2020, is drawing attention.
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| Park Ji-won of the national short track speed skating team is stretching during official training at the multi-purpose hall of the Harbin Heilongjiang Ice Training Center in China on the afternoon of the 5th (local time), two days before the opening of the Harbin Winter Asian Games. |
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| Speed skating team Kim Min-sun is conducting official training at the speed skating Oval at the Harbin Heilongjiang Ice Training Center in China on the morning of the 5th (local time), two days before the opening of the Harbin Winter Asian Games. |
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| Speed skating Kim Jun-ho |
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In speed skating, Kim Min-sun (Uijeong City Hall) and Kim Joon-ho (Gangwon Provincial Office) are expected to compete in gold. In figure skating, Cha Jun-hwan (Korea University) and Kim Chae-yeon (Surigo) are looking at medals. Japan's Kagiyama Yuma and Sakamoto Stingray are strong contenders. Expect Lee Chae-woon (Surigo) of the snowboard men's halfpipe, who showed brilliant performances at the Gangwon Youth Olympics last year, and Chung Dong-hyun of the alpine ski men's slalom 'Saporo gold medalist'Jeong Dong-hyun and freestyle ski men's halfpipe 'Asia No. 1'Lee Seung-hoon. The momentum of the women's curling team '5G' is also good. It is ranked third in the world and No. 1 in Asia in the 2024-2025 season. As there is a gap in skills with Japan, ranked 5th, and China, ranked 17th, they are expecting a gold medal.
Meanwhile, North Korea has also decided to participate as it is a competition in China. It has been seven years since the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. With Kim Il-guk as the head of the athletic department, three athletes will be dispatched to figure skating alone. Ryeom Dae-ok, who won the bronze medal in the figure skating pair at the Sapporo competition, will challenge for the second consecutive medal with his new partner Han Geum-chul.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
