South Korea’s Kim Min-sun captured the gold medal in the women’s 500-meter speedskating at the 2025 Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China, on Sunday, narrowly edging out teammate Lee Na-hyun in a closely contested race.
Kim clocked 38.24 seconds, just 0.09 seconds ahead of Lee (38.33 seconds), securing her first Asian Winter Games title. China’s Tian Ruining took bronze with a time of 38.57 seconds.
Starting from lane 8, Kim got off to a fast start, crossing the first 100 meters in 10.46 seconds -- the quickest split among all 20 competitors. She held her pace through the final stretch, securing gold by a slim margin. Lee, who started from lane 9, also had a strong sprint, passing the first 100 meters in 10.61 seconds before finishing just behind Kim.
For Kim, this victory was a long time coming. She first competed at the 2017 Sapporo Games as a high schooler, finishing seventh in the 500 m. Eight years later, she finally claimed the top spot. The win also made up for her silver medal finish in the 100 m event the previous day, a race that Lee won.
Lee’s 500 m silver adds to her growing medal tally, reinforcing South Korea’s strength in women’s speedskating at the tournament. Meanwhile, South Korea’s Kim Eun-seo (39.56 seconds) and Park Chae-eun (39.58 seconds) finished 12th and 13th, respectively.
mjh@heraldcorp.com
