PYEONGCHANG -- South Korea's first gold medalist at PyeongChang Olympics Lim Hyo-jun said Sunday that he will never let his guard down to bring home more gold, while competing on home soil at the world's biggest winter sports competition.

"It was like a dream come true. It's still incredible that I won gold," the 21-year old said at the medal ceremony held at the PyeongChang Medal Plaza in PyeongChang. "But there are still many competitions out there. I'll do my best to keep this tempo further."

 

In the ceremony, he stood on the top of the podium, with Sjinkie Knegt of the Netherlands on his right for silver and Semen Elistratov of Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) on left for bronze.

In a cold wind and freezing drizzle, hundreds of fans, gathered at an outdoor stage, shouted for the Olympic stars.

Lim won the men's 1,500m finals on Saturday at Gangneung Ice Arena, bringing home the first gold at this year's Olympics on the first day of competition.

Silver medalist Knegt addressed a controversy over a photo taken on Saturday at a ceremony where the skaters received presents. In the picture, he was holding a mascot, with his middle finger up.

"It looked like I put up the middle finger. It's not intended,"

said the Dutch skater. "I just looked very bad in the photo, but it was not on purpose. I was just holding the present."

This is not the first time that Knegt has been involved in such conduct. At the 2014 European championships, he was disqualified for directing an obscene gesture at South Korean-Russian competitor Victor An. (Yonhap)