Short track speed skating Moon Won-jun and naturalization “No team or income due to disciplinary action” “If I can’t train, I think it will be difficult to compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics”
Kim Min-seok (25), a former national speed skating team member and Winter Olympic medalist, has become a naturalized Hungarian citizen.
The Hungarian Skating Federation announced on its website on the 5th (local time) that it had completed the naturalization process for Kim Min-seok and short track speed skating athlete Moon Won-jun (23).
Kim Min-seok explained his reason for naturalization through the Hungarian Skating Federation, saying, “The Korea Skating Federation offered me the opportunity to compete in the 2026 Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Olympics, but I judged it would be difficult if I could not train for three years.”
He added, “Because of the disciplinary action, I had no team or income.”
Kim Min-seok, who won bronze medals in the 1,500m at the 2018 Pyeongchang and 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, was suspended for 1 year and 6 months by the Korea Skating Union’s Sports Fair Play Committee in August of that year for drunk driving at the Jincheon Athletes’ Village in North Chungcheong Province in July
2022. Afterwards, in May of last year, he was fined 4 million won and the Korea Sports Council suspended his national team status for 2 years.
Kim Min-seok said, “I don’t want to make excuses for drunk driving in Korea. I regret it and I haven’t driven since that incident.” Kim Min -seok and Moon Won-jun, who decided to become naturalized Hungarians early this year, are known to have gone to Hungary in February to train there and go through naturalization procedures. Kim Min-seok will now be able to compete as a member of the Hungarian national team at the 2026 Winter Olympics. According to Article 41, Paragraph 2 of the Olympic Charter of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), an athlete may compete in the Olympics after changing nationality only after three years have passed since the last international competition in which he competed under his previous nationality. Kim Min-seok has not competed in an official international competition since competing in the men's 1000m event at the Beijing Winter Olympics on February 18, 2022. The Hungarian Skating Federation, whose short track star brothers Shaolin Sandor Liu and Shaoang Liu naturalized to China in 2022, has successfully strengthened its power with the naturalization of Kim Min-seok and Moon Won-jun. Lujos Kosher, the president of the Hungarian Skating Federation, expected that "the naturalization of athletes with world-class skills will have a positive effect not only on the athletes themselves but also on the existing national team." Naturalization is not the first in the skating world. Viktor Ahn (Korean name Ahn Hyun-soo), a short track star, naturalized to Russia in 2011 and won three gold medals at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Also, Lin Xiaojun (Korean name Lim Hyo-jun), the gold medalist in short track speed skating at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, was suspended for one year in 2019 due to an unpleasant incident with teammate Hwang Dae-heon and became a naturalized Chinese citizen. 카지노 커뮤니티
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