S. Korea to send its 3rd-largest Winter Olympics team to Beijing 2022

South Korea announced Tuesday it will have 63 athletes compete in six sports during the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics. It will be the country's third-largest athletic delegation to the Winter Games, behind 146 athletes for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics on home soil and 71 athletes for the 2014 event in Sochi, Russia. South Korea will also have 61 officials accompanying those athletes during the Feb. 4-20 competition. The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee has said the goal is to w

Olympic GamesJan. 25, 2022

Minus key players, S. Korea looking to book World Cup spot vs. Lebanon

With or without their captain and best player, South Korea will try to extend their World Cup appearance streak to 10 with a win over Lebanon when the final Asian qualification round resumes this week. South Korea will travel to Sidon for their Group A match against Lebanon at Saida Municipal Stadium on Thursday. The kickoff is at 2 p.m. local time, or 9 p.m. in South Korea. With six out of 10 matches in the books in the ongoing round, South Korea are in second place in Group A with 14 points,

SoccerJan. 25, 2022

Veteran nat'l team striker welcomes competition from younger teammates

Since Paulo Bento took over as head coach of the South Korean men's national football team in August 2018, no Korean player has scored more goals than Hwang Ui-jo's 13. After years of relative anonymity, the 29-year-old forward for FC Girondins de Bordeaux has emerged as the go-to striker for Bento, the safety valve that can find the back of the net in desperate moments. And as South Korea prepare to resume their World Cup qualifying bid this week, Hwang may finally have some worthy opponents i

SoccerJan. 25, 2022

Denied Olympic chance, short tracker cries foul over lack of transparency

A South Korean short track speed skater left off the team for the Beijing Winter Olympics due to an injury is accusing the sport's national federation of lacking transparency in its selection process. In an email statement sent to Yonhap News Agency on Sunday, Kim Ji-yoo said she was "upset" that she was "robbed of my ticket to the Beijing Olympics." "It's something precious and dear to my heart, because I earned it with so much hard work," Kim said. However, whe

More SportsJan. 23, 2022

Beijing-bound figure skater Kim Ye-lim wins bronze in final event before Olympics

South Korean Olympic figure skater Kim Ye-lim set a new personal best en route to winning the bronze medal in her final competition before Beijing 2022. Kim scored 209.91 total points at the International Skating Union Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, on Saturday (local time), finishing in third place behind Mai Mihara of Japan (218.03 points) and fellow South Korean Lee Hae-in (213.52 points). Kim's previous career best had been 202.76 points set at the 2020 Fo

More SportsJan. 23, 2022

Women's curling team hoping to add to fond Olympic memories in Beijing

GANGNEUNG -- The South Korean women's curling team will go on a quest for its second straight Olympic medal at the same Beijing venue where the country's Summer Games history was written nearly 14 years ago. At the Feb. 4-20 Beijing Winter Olympics, curling matches will take place at the National Aquatics Center, which held swimming races when the Chinese capital hosted the 2008 Summer Games. It was there on Aug. 10, 2008, that Park Tae-hwan won gold in the men's 400m freestyle swimming. Park,

Olympic GamesJan. 21, 2022

[BEIJING OLYMPICS] Two-thirds of S. Koreans not interested in Beijing Winter Olympics: poll

Nearly two-thirds of South Koreans have no interest in the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, a survey showed Friday. Gallup Korea polled 1,002 South Korean adults from Tuesday to Thursday on their thoughts on the Feb. 4-20 Winter Games in the Chinese capital. And 65 percent said they were not interested, compared with 32 percent who showed an interest in the competition. The other 3 percent declined to answer. In the same poll conducted prior to the 2018 Winter Olympics in the South Korean hos

Olympic GamesJan. 21, 2022

Men's nat'l football coach demands more from players after resounding friendly win

With one friendly match down and one more to go before South Korea's World Cup qualifying campaign resumes this month, head coach Paulo Bento wants to keep pushing his players. "The goal is to compete as well as possible and improve on what we did in the last game," Bento said in an interview clip released by the Korea Football Association (KFA) on Thursday, the eve of South Korea's tuneup contest against Moldova in Antalya, Turkey. Bento has been running training camp with the natio

SoccerJan. 20, 2022

Veteran forward wants to return favor to coach, help new club to K League title

Nearly a decade after winning a historic Olympic football medal together in London, veteran forward Park Chu-young and longtime coach Hong Myung-bo have been reunited on the perennial K League contender, Ulsan Hyundai FC. After Park left FC Seoul, the only K League club he'd ever played for, in December, Hong and Ulsan reached out and signed him on Sunday. Park, a 36-year-old forward who didn't score in 17 matches in 2021, suddenly had a lifeline to continue his playing career. He'd turned down

SoccerJan. 19, 2022

S. Korea to face Moldova in tuneup for World Cup qualifiers as roster crunch looms

South Korea will take on Moldova on Friday in their final men's football friendly match before their World Cup qualifying campaign resumes, with domestic league players getting their last shot to stake their claim for roster spots. The second-ever meeting between the two countries will kick off at Mardan Sports Complex in Antalya, Turkey, at 2 p.m. local time, or 8 p.m. in South Korea. It will be the last tuneup match for South Korea before they face Lebanon on Jan. 27 in the final Asian quali

SoccerJan. 19, 2022

Blown call aside, S. Korean forward trying to become complete player

South Korean forward Kim Gun-hee thought he had his first senior international goal last Saturday against Iceland, only to have the marker wiped off by a questionable offside call. There was no video assistant referee (VAR) in the friendly match at Mardan Sports Complex in Antalya, Turkey, and the game continued without a review. Television replays showed, however, that it was a borderline call at best that could have gone Kim's way. Kim was playing in his first match for South Korea as a seco

SoccerJan. 19, 2022

New LPGA season opens this week with S. Koreans looking for bounceback

The 2022 LPGA Tour season will tee off this week in the Sunshine State, with South Korean players looking to bounce back from a relatively down year in 2021. The winners-only Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions will open the new season Thursday at the par-72 Lake Nona Golf and Country Club in Orlando. Tour winners from the past two seasons will make up the exclusive 29-player field, and they will be joined by 50 celebrities and former professional athletes. Four South Korean players

More SportsJan. 19, 2022

Short tracker Shim Suk-hee to miss Beijing 2022 after losing injunction bid against ban

South Korean short track speed skater Shim Suk-hee has lost her injunction bid against an Olympic ban, legal sources said Tuesday, as her attempt to regain eligibility for Beijing 2022 crashed and burned. The sources said the Seoul Eastern District Court rejected Shim's application for an injunction to lift a two-month ban by the Korea Skating Union (KSU) issued in December. Shim was suspended for making disparaging comments on her teammates and coaches in a text exchange with a coach during t

More SportsJan. 18, 2022

Manager of reigning KBO champions eyes repeat in 2022

SUWON -- The KT Wiz, after years as the bottom feeder of South Korean baseball, finally earned their inaugural Korean Series title in 2021. And the goal for their manager, Lee Kang-chul, in 2022 is simple: defend that championship. "I feel like defending the turf is a lot more difficult than going after the trophy the first time," Lee said in an interview at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, about 45 kilometers south of Seoul, on Monday. "Teams made a flurry of moves in the offseason, and t

BaseballJan. 18, 2022

Well-traveled football defender constantly searching for improvement

Nearly a decade into his club football career, South Korean defender Kwon Kyung-won recently joined his sixth club in the fourth different country. There is more to this than wanderlust for the 29-year-old, who signed with Gamba Osaka of Japan on New Year's Day after stints in South Korea, Saudi Arabia and China. Kwon wants to challenge himself in different circumstances in his never-ending search for improvement. "I wanted to play in as many countries as I can," Kwon said in an inte

SoccerJan. 18, 2022

S. Korean 4-man bobsleigh team ranks season-best 10th in World Cup finale

The South Korean four-man bobsleigh team led by an Olympic medal-winning pilot had its best performance of the season in the final race before the Beijing Winter Games. Won Yun-jong led his quartet to a 10th place finish at the season-ending International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation (IBSF) World Cup in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Sunday (local time), with a combined time of 2:10.28 after two runs. Won, who won a four-man bobsleigh silver at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, had hov

Olympic GamesJan. 17, 2022

[BEIJING OLYMPICS] Surprise silver medalist from PyeongChang wants to take next step in Beijing

Of the seven medals that South Korea won in speed skating at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, none was more surprising than the out-of-the-blue silver by Cha Min-kyu in the men's 500m. Sure, he had won an odd medal here and there at other international races, but an Olympic podium finish was completely unexpected. But lost in the hoopla over that silver was just how close Cha came to winning gold. At 34.42 seconds, Cha ended up only 0.01 second back of the gold medalist, Havard Lorentzen

Olympic GamesJan. 17, 2022

S. Korean teenager Cho Won-bin signs with St. Louis Cardinals

South Korean high school baseball prospect Cho Won-bin has inked a deal with the St. Louis Cardinals, months after pulling out of the domestic league draft in pursuit of an American dream. Cho was one of 12 international free agent signings announced by the Cardinals on Saturday (US local time). He is the first Asian amateur to sign with the Cardinals. Cho, set to graduate from Seoul Convention High School, had been regarded as a strong candidate to be selected during the territorial portion o

BaseballJan. 16, 2022

Ex-club manager named KBO's new technical director

Former manager Youm Kyoung-youb was named the new technical director for South Korean baseball Friday, with his main task being assembling the national team for this year's Asian Games. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said Youm will soon fill out the rest of the technical committee and take scouting trips through KBO clubs' spring training starting next month. Youm, 53, previously managed the Nexen Heroes and SK Wyverns in the KBO and also worked as general manager of the Wyverns. The K

BaseballJan. 14, 2022

Ex-Barca youth player thriving with extended opportunity in K League

After an ultimately unsuccessful stint in Europe, former FC Barcelona youth player Paik Seung-ho has been penning a much better chapter of his career at home. His success with the K League 1 champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors has also led to multiple callups to the senior men's national team. And Paik says there is no secret to his midcareer turnaround. "I have gotten better because I have been playing more," Paik said in an interview clip provided by the Korea Football Association (KF

SoccerJan. 14, 2022