South Korea: Olympic Tradition

South Korea made its first Olympic Winter Games appearance in 1948. It stands 18th in the all-time medal standings with 31 (17 gold, eight silver, six bronze) after picking up 11 medals in Torino.

All but one of those medals came in short track (speed skater Lee Kang-Seok took bronze in the men's 500m). Ahn Hyun-Soo won three golds and a bronze, and Lee Ho-Suk, known as "Little Ahn" because he is considered the next great South Korean star (and because he is a year younger than Ahn), won a gold and two silvers (both silvers were behind Ahn).

On the women's side, Jin Sun-Yu won gold in the 1000m, 1500m and 3000m relay. With her on the relay was Choi Eun-Kyung, who also took silver in the 1500m, adding to her gold and silver from Salt Lake.

In Salt Lake, all four of South Korea's medals came in short track. Ko Gi-Hyun won gold (1500m) and silver (1000m), and her victory made her the fifth winter athlete younger than 16 years old to win a gold medal (she is the fourth-youngest gold medalist in Winter Games history).

The youngest gold medalist and overall medalist in Olympic Winter Games history is South Korean Kim Yun-Mi, who was 13 years, 83 days old when she won a short track gold medal in Lillehammer.

Seoul hosted the Games of the XXIV Olympiad in 1988.

Athletes from the two Koreas marched together at the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Games, 2004 Athens Games and 2008 Beijing Games.