Ice speed racer Kim Jun-ho won the first 500m Korea X bronze medal in the World Cup! LEE NA HYUN's first accomplishment!

Nov 17, 2025

Kim Joon-ho Sports Chosun DB

'Ace in Ice' Kim Joon-ho (30, Gangwon Province) won a bronze medal with a Korean record at the International Skating Union (ISU) Speed Skating World Cup, the first of the season.

Kim Joon-ho ranked third with a time of 33.78 seconds in the second race of the men's 500m in the first round of the 2025-2026 ISU Speed Skating World Cup at the Utah Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City, Utah on the 17th (Korea time). Yening the Boo (Dutch, 33.63 seconds) and Yevgeny Koschkin (Kazakhstan, 33.67 seconds) ranked 1-2th.

Kim Joon-ho, a bronze medalist in the 500m at the 2025 Harbin Winter Asian Games, shortened his best record (34:07) by 0.29 seconds in December 2022, advancing the Korean record of 34.03 seconds set by Cha Min-gyu (Dongducheon City Hall) at the 2018-2019 ISU Speed Skating World Cup Final by 0.25 seconds in March 2019. Kim Joon-ho, who was promoted to the second race of the men's 500m Division A by reaching 34.10 seconds in the first race of the men's 500m Division B (division 2) the previous day, passed the first 100m section with 9.49 seconds, second overall, and came in third, 0.15 seconds behind the first place. He rose to the first podium of the season and inflated expectations ahead of the Milan Olympics next year.

Lee Na-hyun Sports Chosun DB

Lee Na-hyun (Korea National University) also crossed the finish line in 37.03 seconds in the women's 500m second race, finishing third after Femke Kok (the Netherlands, 36.09 seconds) and Erin Jackson (the U.S., 36.57 seconds) and winning the bronze medal. Along with his personal best, he won his first medal in the World Cup series individual event. Koch, who won the second 500m race, succeeded in breaking a new world record in 12 years by advancing the existing world record (36:36) set by Lee Sang-hwa in the second round of the 2013-2014 ISU World Cup on November 17, 2013. Kim Min-sun (Uijeong City Hall) ranked 17th at 37.46 seconds, short of her best (36.96 seconds).

Lim Ri-won (Uijeong Girls' High School) ranked 15th with 8:36:07 in the women's mass start, while Jeong Jae-won (Uijeong City Hall, 7:46.04) and Cho Seung-min (Dongbuk High School, 7:4618) ranked 11th and 12th respectively in the men's mass start.

Reporter Jeon Young-ji sky4us@sportschosun.com

This article was translated by Naver AI translator.