Choi Minjeong's Final Season Begins... Kim Gilli and Lim Jongeon Aim for the Top of the World

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Choi Minjeong, the “Queen of Short Track” who dominated an era, is set to make one final push wearing the Korean flag.

The 2026-2027 International Skating Union (ISU) Short Track World Tour, which will be the final stage of national team member Choi Minjeong's career, gets underway with its first event in Vancouver, Canada, from October 23 to 25. After finishing first at the national team trials in April 2026, Choi announced that she would retire from the national team at the end of the 2026-2027 season.

This season's ISU Short Track World Tour will feature seven events: Vancouver, followed by Montreal (October 30-November 1), Seoul (November 20-22), Shanghai (November 27-29), Beijing (December 4-6), Gdansk (February 5-7, 2027), and Tilburg (February 12-14, 2027). The tour is returning to Seoul for the first time in two years, since 2024.

A month after the World Tour concludes, the ISU World Short Track Championships, which will wrap up the season, will be held in Seoul from March 12 to 14, 2027. The World Championships are returning to Seoul for the first time in four years, since 2023. Coming after the third World Tour event, the World Championships will give Choi an ideal opportunity to bring her national team career to a close in front of Korean fans.

Choi Minjeong, who won the silver medal, congratulates Kim Gilli, who took gold, after the women’s 1,500-meter short-track final at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, held at the Milan Ice Skating Arena in Italy last February. Yonhap News Agency

Choi has left a significant mark on ISU history. She finished first overall twice in the World Cup, the predecessor to the World Tour, in the 2015-2016 and 2017-2018 seasons, and won the individual overall title at the World Championships four times, in 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2022.

Although she has announced her retirement from the national team, Choi remains among the world's best. She finished first overall at the first event of the national team trials in April 2026, then swept the 500m and 1,500m events at the second event to secure first place overall and earn her final place on the national team. Her longtime rival Shim Sukhee finished second overall. Kim Gilli earned automatic selection to the team after winning two individual titles at the ISU World Championships in March 2026. Choi, Shim, and Kim will form the core of the women's team's individual-event lineup this season.

Another point of interest in Choi's final season will be her friendly rivalry with Kim Gilli, who is aiming to become the next “Queen of Short Track.” Kim, a junior from Choi's alma mater, Seohyun High School, grew up idolizing Choi and has now established herself as another ace on the national team. The two are also teammates at Seongnam City Hall.

At the women's 1,500m event at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February 2026, Kim won gold and Choi took silver, with both sharing the podium in a memorable moment. This season, Kim will aim to reclaim the World Tour overall title for the first time in three seasons, since the 2023-2024 season.

In the men's events, 2007-born Lim Jongeon will be one to watch. Although still a teenager, Lim has already established himself as an ace on the national team. At the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February 2026, he won bronze in the men's 1,000m and silver in the 5,000m relay. In the 1,500m, where he had been expected to win gold, he slipped during the race and was eliminated in the quarterfinals, a disappointing result. However, at the World Championships a month later, he swept the 1,000m and 1,500m to win two individual titles. In last season's World Tour, which marked his senior debut, he won a total of nine medals, including five golds. Having gained experience in his second senior season, he is expected to show even stronger form.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.