Kim Sang-gyeom (32, High1 Resort) climbed to fourth place, the highest score in Korean skiing history, at the International Ski Federation (FIS) Snowboard Alpine World Championships.
Kim Sang-gyeom was ranked 4th out of 58 athletes in the men’s parallel competition at the 2021 Snowboard Alpine World Championships held in Rogla, Slovenia on the night of the 1st (Korean time). It has been 4 years since Seo Ji-won (27) took 4th place in the Women’s Duel Mogul at the Freestyle World Championships in March 2017 that Korean skiing climbed to 4th in the World Championships.
Kim Sang-gyeom ranked 9th in the preliminary round in the final of the round of 16, and in the round of 16, they advanced to the quarterfinals, beating Mirco Felicetti (Italy) by 0.61 seconds. In the quarter-finals, Mihal Novachik (Poland) beat Mihal Novachik (Poland) by 0.02 seconds to reach the semifinals. However, Kim Sang-gyeom was defeated by Roland Pischnaler (Italy) in the quarter-finals, and also passed the finish line later than Andrei Sobolev (Russia) in the 3rd-4th place match against bronze medals.
Kim Sang-gyeom revealed his prospects for medals at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics after placing 4th in the FIS Snowboard World Cup held in Kayseri, Turkey in March 2017, ranking in the semifinals of the World Championships again after 4 years.
Immediately after the competition, Kim Sang-gyeom said, “I was worried about the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), but I was able to come to this place with the help of coach Bong Min-ho and the coaching staff and the support of the Korea Ski Association and High1 Resort. I will prepare well for the parallel rotation tomorrow with the meaning of seeing it.”
Lee Sang-ho (26, High1 Resort), a silver medalist at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, ranked 14th, and Jung Hae-rim (26, Gyeonggi Do Ski Association) ranked 23rd. Snowboard Alpine national team will re-challenge to win medals in a parallel rotation game held at the same place on the 2nd.
The competition was originally scheduled to be held in China in the form of a test event for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, but the venue was changed to Slovenia due to the cancellation of international sports competitions in China due to Corona 19.
Reporter Heo Jong-ho