"From the standpoint of the association, thank you very much. In the long run, the naturalization policy eventually bore fruit. On the 11th, Russian naturalized athlete Ekaterina Avakumova won the championship in the women's 7.5km sprint biathlon at the 2025 Harbin Asian Winter Games with a time of 22:45.4, winning the first biathlon gold medal in the history of South Korea.

Naturalized Russian athlete Ekaterina Avakumova

Avakumova, a former youth representative of Russia, joined South Korea in 2016. Awakumova, who won silver in the individual event at the 2014 Winter Universiade in Granada and gold in the mixed relay at the 2015 World Championships, decided to become a naturalized citizen because she wanted to compete in PyeongChang 2018. At that time, South Korea also needed excellent athletes for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, so the two sides hit it off.

Naturalized Russian athlete Ekaterina Avakumova

Since then, Avakumova, who has become a "blue-eyed Tai Chi warrior", once led the forefront of Korean biathlon. Stepping onto the coveted PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Avakumova finished 16th in the women's 15km individual race with a time of 44:25.3. This is the best result achieved by a female athlete at the Olympics in the history of Korean biathlon. But Avakumova decided to leave South Korea temporarily after the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. It is reported that she encountered a lot of difficulties in adapting to life in a different place and finally decided to break up with South Korea. Some have criticized that Timo Pe Rahim and Anna Flolina, who were naturalized together, chose to stay in South Korea, and that South Korea only picked the fruits of "Olympic athletes" in Avakumova's naturalization.

Avakumova returned to South Korea in 2020 and chose to wear the Tai Chi badge again at Beijing 2022, although her results were not as good as those in PyeongChang four years ago. In the women's 15km individual event, she finished 73rd out of 87 people with a time of 52:31.4. At that time, due to a shooting error, the ranking dropped significantly.

Naturalized Russian athlete Ekaterina Avakumova

Avakumova, who has experienced heartache, won the gold medal at the 2025 Harbin Asian Winter Games, and the Korean Biathlon Association also won the gold medal in the international comprehensive competition for the first time. South Korean media said that this is a feat of the association in promoting Avakumova's naturalization for 9 years. In fact, the association did not expect Avakumova to win the gold medal at this tournament. An official from the association said: "Avakumova likes South Korea very much. He lives in the team's dormitory near the Pyeongchang Alpensia Biathlon Center, and he heard that the training environment in our country is really good. ”