Snowboarding fuels South Korea’s Olympic breakthrough

Kim Sang-gyeom, 37, the veteran leader of South Korea’s national snowboard team, celebrated after winning silver in the parallel giant slalom. Rising star Yoo Seung-eun, 18, followed with a bronze medal in snowboard big air. South Korea’s first and second medals at the 2026 Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Olympics both came from snowboarding. It marked the first time South Korea has won two or more medals in snow events, including biathlon, skiing and snowboarding, at a single Winter Games.

Until then, South Korea had earned only one Olympic medal in snow events. That came at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, when Lee Sang-ho, 31, nicknamed “Cabbage Boy,” won silver in the snowboard parallel giant slalom.

The decisive turning point that enabled South Korea, long regarded as a powerhouse in ice sports, to break through in snow events came with the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, which the country hosted. The Games prompted the construction of snowboarding venues and a sliding center for sled sports, infrastructure that had not previously existed in South Korea. At the same time, youth development programs expanded across a wide range of winter disciplines.

Corporate backing, particularly from Lotte Group, has also played a pivotal role. Since assuming the chairmanship of the Korea Ski and Snowboard Association in 2014, Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin has spent more than a decade serving as a major patron of South Korea’s snow sports. Shin, who began skiing at age 6 and competed through college, has often spoken of his deep passion for the sport, saying he would have pursued a career as a skier had he not entered business.

During his tenure as association chairman from 2014 to 2018, Shin provided more than 17.5 billion won in support, including a one-time sponsorship of 50 billion won for the PyeongChang Olympics. Even after stepping down, Lotte Group has continued to invest heavily, spending more than 30 billion won to support snow sports.

In 2024, Shin personally covered the full 70 million won cost of back surgery for Choi Ga-on, 18, South Korea’s top women’s snowboard halfpipe athlete. Choi is considered a strong gold medal contender in the halfpipe at the current Olympics. Other athletes rising through the development pipeline include moguls skier Jung Dae-yoon, 21, and halfpipe snowboarder Lee Chae-woon, 20.


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