Min Ryoung (; born July 14, 1982, in

Daegu Daegu (; ), formerly spelled Taegu and officially Daegu Metropolitan City (), is a city in southeastern South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; the fourth-largest List of provincial-level ci ...

) is a retired

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

short track speed skater Short-track speed skating is a form of competitive ice skating, ice speed skating. In competitions, multiple skaters (typically between four and six) skate on an oval ice track with a length of . The rink itself is long by wide, which is the s ...

. He is the 2000 Overall World Champion.

2002 Winter Olympics

Min participated in the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 (; Gosiute dialect, Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; ; Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), were an international wi ...

held in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. Prior to the Olympics, he was expected to compete in the 1500 metre or 1000 metre individual events along with the 5000 metre relay. However, the South Korean coach controversially announced that he would send Min to only the relay event in order to give the opportunities of the individual competitions to another prospect

Ahn Hyun-Soo Viktor An (; born Ahn Hyun-soo () on November 23, 1985),. is a South Korean-born Russian short-track speed skating coach and retired short-track speed skater. With a total of eight Olympic medals, six gold and two bronze, he is the only short t ...

. On February 13, The South Korean relay team raced with United States, Italy, and Australia in the 45-lap semifinal race. During the 17th lap, Min attempted to pass United States team member Rusty Smith on the inside. But Min made a bad pass and bumped Smith's elbow and shoulder with his hip. Min collided with the Italian

Nicola Rodigari Nicola Rodigari (born 7 November 1981) is an Italian short track speed skater who competed in the 2002, 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics. He was born in Tirano Tirano (; ) is a town and (municipality) in Valtellina, l ...

, and the two fell on the ice and spun out into the boards. Min was sent to a hospital emergency room for evaluation for back and hip injuries. But the Korean team was disqualified. Liz Robbins, "OLYMPICS: SPEEDSKATING; Ohno Overcomes Crowd and Flu to Start Quest", New York Times, Feb. 13, 2002
/ref> Due to the injury, Min retired from short track speed skating for good next year.

References

External links

* 1982 births Living people South Korean male short-track speed skaters Olympic short-track speed skaters for South Korea Short-track speed skaters at the 2002 Winter Olympics Winter World University Games medalists in short-track speed skating Speed skaters from Daegu FISU World University Games gold medalists for South Korea Competitors at the 2001 Winter Universiade World Short Track Speed Skating Championships medalists 21st-century South Korean sportsmen {{SouthKorea-speed-skating-bio-stub