Jang Sung-woo of South Korea's men's short track speed skating team, who won the double Olympic Games in Harbin 2025, has achieved valuable results in the test event for the 2026 Olympic Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo in Milan, raising the anticipation of Korean ice fans. On the 16th, Beijing time, in the men's 1500m final of the sixth leg of the 2024-2025 International Skating Union (ISU) Short Track Speed Skating World Tour held in Milan, Italy, Zhang Chengyu ranked third with a time of 2:20.217.

South Korea's short track speed skating national representative Jang Sung-woo

Jang Sung-woo looked for an opportunity after the start of the race and rushed to the outside with four laps left on the finish line. After that, in search of a comeback, he entered the inner lane again and finished third. He picked up the pace on the final lap but was never able to improve the rankings. Jang Sung-woo battled hard before the finish line and finished 0.009 seconds behind fourth-placed Siegel Pietro (Italy). The first place was won by the Netherlands' Fanter Bad Jens, and the second place was won by Japan's Takanari Hayase. South Korea's Kim Keon-woo and Lee Jung-so, who participated in the same event, failed to reach the Group A final.

The Korean team failed to win a medal in any of the other events held on the same day. In the women's 1000m, no one made it to the semi-finals. Roh Do-hee was eliminated in the qualifiers on the 15th, and Kim Ji-ri and Shim Hee-seok tasted the bitter fruits of defeat in the quarterfinals on the same day. Kim Jili also suffered a fall during the match.

In the men's 500m, there were no South Koreans who managed to reach the final of Group A. Park Ji-won reached the quarterfinals in the loser's repechage but failed to reach the semifinals. Park Jang-hyuk was unqualified in the quarter-finals, and Kim Tae-sung was eliminated in the qualifiers.

South Korea also did not perform well in the relay race. The South Korean team composed of Choi Minjing, Roh Do-hee, Shim Seok-hee and Lee So-yeon, the "triple champion of the Harbin Asian Winter Games", was second only to the Netherlands and China in the second group of the women's 3000-meter relay semifinals and failed to enter the Group A final. The Korean mixed 2000m relay and men's 5000m relay teams were eliminated in the quarterfinals on the 15th, so the semifinals could not be played on the same day.

The Korean short track speed skating team is competing in this tournament with physical problems. After returning home from the Harbin Asian Winter Games on the 10th of this month, the national team went to Italy again on the 11th of the next day. Although it was difficult to maintain their form, they did not give up on this World Tour event. This is because the sixth leg of the World Tour will be held at the venue of the 2026 Winter Olympics as an Olympic test event. Rather than the desire for results, the Korean short track speed skating team is more focused on familiarizing themselves with the ice quality and the atmosphere.