Chae Ji-Hun

Chae Ji-Hun celebrated his career’s biggest victories in two Norwegian towns within 15 km of each other. At the 1994 Winter Olympics, the short track events were held in the town of Hamar. There, Chae captured the Olympic gold in the 500 m, catching fast-starting Mirko Vuillermin just before the line. In the 1,000 m, he placed third, but moved up to silver medal position after Nicky Gooch was disqualified. The following year, the World Championships were held in the town of Gjøvik, just across the Mjøsa lake. Chae absolutely dominated that competition, winning three of the four distances and easily claiming the overall title. These weren’t the only world titles for him, earning distance wins in 1993, 1994 and 1996 as well. In these years, he also reached the overall podium, coming second in 1994 and 1996. By the Nagano Olympics, Chae had lost his individual dominance, missing the final in both individual events. But the Koreans won silver in the relay, marking the end of Chae’s career.

Chae Ji-Hun remained very involved in sports. Apart from earning a Ph.D. in sports psychology (Yonsei University, Seoul), he was coach of the United States national team (2006-2007), and he has served on the technical committee for short track of the International Skating Union (ISU) since 2006.