South Korean short track speed skater Seo Yi-ra couldn’t have picked a better place to win his first international individual medal since ending his retirement last fall — in his hometown of Seoul.
The 31-year-old skated to a silver medal in the men’s 500 meters at the International Skating Union (ISU) World Cup Short Track Speed Skating at Mokdong Ice Rink on Sunday.
Seo had joined his teammates for a couple of silver medals in the men’s 5,000m relay earlier in the World Cup season, but his most recent individual World Cup medal had come during the 2015-2016 season. The last time Seo had reached the podium at any international competition was the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea’s PyeongChang, where he won bronze in the men’s 1,000m.
Seo hung up his skates after pulling out of the national team trials for the 2019-2020 season. He went into coaching but decided to return to competition in the fall of 2022.
“It feels great to finally win a medal after all these years,” Seo said at his post-race press conference. “I was nervous beforehand, but I was able to come away with this medal.”
Seo once said he was inspired to return to ice after watching his former teammates skate at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. He admitted Sunday, however, that he at first regretted coming back at all because skating “was so much tougher than I’d expected.”
The story of Seo’s comeback would have had a far happier narrative Sunday if he hadn’t been nipped at the line by Liu Shaoang of China.
Seo was in the lead with two laps to go in the final, but Liu caught him over the final turn and stuck out his blade to win the gold in 41.196 seconds. Seo checked in at 41.205 seconds.
“I celebrated first because I thought I won the race,” Seo said with a smile. “It was hard to tell who finished first. It was really close but I decided to celebrate anyway.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency