In the men's 1500m short track speed skating competition at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Lin Xiaojun (South Korean name Lin Hyojun) won the gold medal for the South Korean team, and at the 2025 Harbin Asian Winter Games, Lin Xiaojun will be the Chinese representative Lin Xiaojun to the 500m championship.

On the 8th, at the men's 500m short track speed skating award ceremony at the 2025 Asian Winter Games, the gold medalist Lim Hyo-jun (South Korean name Lim Hyo-jun) held a medal and mascot doll.

Russia-born Avakumova competed in the 2025 Harbin Asian Winter Games, where she would not have been able to participate if she had maintained her nationality, and won first place in the women's 7.5km biathlon and presented South Korea with the first biathlon gold medal in history. At the Asian Winter Games, we saw the opposite of a former South Korean athlete beating South Koreans to win a gold medal, and a naturalized Russian athlete winning a biathlon gold medal for South Korea.

"Naturalization" in the world of sports is frequent. In this regard, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stipulates that "if an athlete wishes to change his nationality to participate in the Olympic Games, he must participate in the international competition of his current nationality three years later." Individual sports federations have also recognized some exceptions based on the provision that "naturalized players with national representation experience may participate in international competitions three years after acquiring their new nationality, and those without national representation experience may participate in international competitions one year after obtaining nationality". In the recent outbreak of refugee issues, the period of prohibition from participating in international competitions will be applied flexibly to players who have fled due to political persecution, etc.

Russian naturalized Avakumova won South Korea's first biathlon gold medal in history

South Korea received naturalized players later than other countries. Since 2011, South Korea has established a "special naturalization system for outstanding talents", which has been actively used by the domestic sports community after successfully bidding to host the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. At the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, 19 of South Korea's 144 competitors were naturalized. In 2018, South Korea became the country with the most naturalized athletes of any Winter Olympics host. South Korea is a powerhouse in short track speed skating and speed skating, but there are few internationally competitive athletes in ice hockey and snow. Eventually, South Korea included naturalized players in the national team in weak sports such as ice hockey, biathlon, skiing, figure skating, and bobsledding. One of them won gold at the Harbin Asian Winter Games.

The background was that the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics were just around the corner and many athletes were acquiring Korean citizenship in order to fulfill their dreams of participating in the Games. Most of the 19 people who wore the Tai Chi badge after the Olympics left South Korea because they didn't fulfill their dreams. At the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, the South Korean men's ice hockey team had seven naturalized players. Of the seven, only Golly Matt Dalton is currently active in South Korea.

South Korean ice hockey at the Harbin Asian Winter Games, except for Dalton, only players with pure Korean nationality formed the national team. Although the PyeongChang Winter Olympics have brought more attention to naturalized athletes, there are also cases of naturalized athletes who have obtained Korean citizenship in other sports to realize their dreams. Personal choices have also become a valuable asset for Korean sports. Table tennis player Tian Zhixi is one of the representatives. Tian Zhixi, who was naturalized from China and South Korea in 2011, partnered with Shin Yubin at the World Table Tennis Championships in May 2023 to reach the women's doubles final and eventually won the silver medal. This is the first time in 36 years that South Korea has won a medal in the World Table Tennis Championships.

South Korea, who won the women's team bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, (from left) Shin Yubin, Lee Eun-hye and Tian Ji-hee

Tian Zhixi and Shin Yubin also won the women's doubles championship at the Hangzhou Asian Games held in September of the same year, which was the first time in 21 years that Korean table tennis won the Asian Games gold medal in this event. Tian Zhixi also became a member of the bronze medal in the women's team event at the Paris 2024 Olympics. South Korea's Olympic medal in the women's team table tennis event is the first feat in 16 years since finishing third at Beijing 2008.

After Tian Ji-hee, who has contributed to the development of Korean table tennis, withdraws from the Korean table tennis national team at the end of 2024, the Korean Table Tennis Association is faced with the task of finding an internationally competitive doubles partner for her first sister, Shin Yubin.

In table tennis, "representatives of Chinese countries" are common. Players who had given up their dream of serving as their country's representatives in China, where there are many masters, were naturalized and achieved their goal of participating in major international tournaments as national representatives of other countries such as South Korea. Basketball player Na Kin-ah (USA) and track and field athlete Oh Joo-han (Kenya) also received Korean citizenship as special naturalization subjects, and participated in international competitions wearing tae-chi badges.

On the 9th, in the men's 5000m relay final of short track speed skating at the 2025 Asian Winter Games, Park Ji-won and Lim Hyo-jun were competing for position.

Archer Hayakawa (Japan) and short track speed skater Alia Kim (Kazakhstan) have returned to other countries to compete at the Olympics after starting their sports in South Korea. There are also countless cases of golfer Lee Diego (New Zealand) becoming naturalized players from other countries when he was a child, which has also led to "naturalized Korean players" in many countries. However, players with flashy resumes are more eye-catching and can spark heated debates. The most representative of these are Viktor Ahn (Ahn Hyun-so), who is naturalized as a naturalized Russian and now retired, and Lim Hyo-jun, who is now the representative of China.

Victor was a triple crown winner at Turin 2006 and a signature short-track speed skating player in South Korea, but in 2009 he broke his kneecap and suffered a serious injury that led to the dissolution of his club and the threat of retirement, before joining the host team Russia at Sochi 2014 in 2011.

Viktor Ahn also won the triple crown in Sochi, when the South Korean men's short track speed skating team suffered the humiliation of not being a medal. Viktor Ahn received a medal from President Putin and became a Hero of Russia. In South Korea, the debate about the "reality that Viktor Ahn had to go to Russia" has been going on for a long time.

Former technical coach of the Chinese short track speed skating team, Ahn Hyun-so (Russian name Viktor Ahn), was interviewed by South Korean media at a restaurant in Seoul in March 2022

Lin Xiaojun has also become a player supported by Chinese ice fans. Lin Xiaojun was involved in a sexual harassment incident in 2019 and experienced pain. Lim Hyo-jun was prosecuted on suspicion of pulling each other's pants while playing with the juniors of the national team at the Jincheon National Representative Athlete Village Strength Training Center. Lim Hyo-jun was acquitted after arguing in court, but the one-year suspension he received from the Korean Skating Federation did not disappear. During the punishment period, Lin Xiaojun, who was already preparing to become a naturalized citizen, went to China despite being acquitted. In order to continue the "life of a short track speed skater", this is a helpless choice.

After Lim Hyo-jun was found not guilty, after various stories spread, more and more Korean fans understood his trip to China. However, if an international tournament is held, Lim Hyo-jun will only be able to compete with South Korean players, and Korean sports fans will look at the event with a more critical eye than usual.

Kim Min-seok, the former national representative of South Korea, also chose to join Hungary. Kim Min-seok also candidly confided in the reason for naturalization through the Hungarian Ice Sports Federation: "In South Korea, he was suspended for drunk driving (1 year and 6 months, 2 years). I don't want to justify what happened at the time. He added: "The Korean Skating Union said it would give me the chance to play in Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo 2026, but I think it would be tiring if I couldn't train for three years. Due to the penalty, there is currently no team to belong to and no income. ”

Naturalized to Hungarian Kim Min-seok

The reasons and methods for Korean-born players to acquire the nationality of other countries are also increasing. However, in international competitions where the nature of national competition is still strong, the "nationality issue" has always been a topic of debate. In the United States, a multi-ethnic country, Armond Duplantis, who sets a new world record in the men's pole vault in track and field every year, does not represent his father's nationality of the United States, but represents his mother's country, Sweden, to compete, and there are also different voices.

Regarding the Middle East oil-producing countries hiring African track and field athletes to compete for their own countries, many people criticized: "This is tantamount to taking the money from oil sales into the Olympic souvenir store." "While there are still rules that restrict players from changing their nationality, it doesn't take away their right to go to a better environment to develop themselves.