Figure Skater Junhwan Cha and Speed Skater Jiwoo Park Named Flag Bearers for Milan Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony

Sangho Lee and Minjeong Choi Named Team Captains
for the Korean Delegation in Snowboarding and Short Track Speed Skating

Junhwan Cha, the leading men's singles figure skater, and Jiwoo Park, the national representative for women's mass start speed skating, will serve as flag bearers for the Korean delegation at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics.

The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee announced on January 26 that Junhwan Cha and Jiwoo Park have been selected as the flag bearers who will lead the Korean national team at the opening ceremony, which will be held at San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy, on February 6 local time.

Junhwan Cha (left) and Jiwoo Park are answering questions from the press at the D-30 Media Day for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games held on the 7th at the Jincheon Athlete Village in Chungbuk.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Junhwan Cha and Jiwoo Park will be making their third Olympic appearance, following the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

At this event, Junhwan Cha aims to become the first Korean male athlete to win a figure skating medal. While still a student at Whimoon High School, he finished 15th overall at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, surpassing the previous best Korean men's singles Olympic finish (17th place by Jung Sungil at the 1994 Lillehammer Games) after 24 years, and went on to place 5th overall at the Beijing Games.

Jiwoo Park is a veteran who has long led Korean women's speed skating. She raised expectations by winning a bronze medal in the women's mass start at the third leg of the 2025-2026 International Skating Union (ISU) World Cup held in December last year.

For the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics, Lee Sangho in snowboarding and Choi Minjeong in short track speed skating have been named as the men's and women's team captains, respectively. This will also be the third Olympic appearance for both athletes.

Lee Sangho made history by winning a silver medal in the men's parallel giant slalom at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, becoming the first Korean skier to win an Olympic medal, and reached the quarterfinals at the Beijing Olympics.

Choi Minjeong is a legendary short track skater, having won three gold and two silver medals at the Pyeongchang and Beijing Olympics.

She is again considered a strong contender for gold at this event. If she adds another gold medal at the Milan Winter Olympics, she will tie the record for the most Winter Olympic gold medals (four) held by Chun Lee Kyung. Furthermore, if she wins two medals, she will set a new record for the most Olympic medals by a Korean athlete in both the Summer and Winter Games, surpassing the previous record of six medals shared by Jin Jongoh (shooting), Kim Soonyoung (archery), and Lee Seunghoon (speed skating), by reaching a total of seven.

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