South Korea’s Olympic short track champion Park Seung-hi will convert to speed skating for the new season, her agency in Seoul said Wednesday.

Brion Company announced that Park, who won two gold medals and one bronze at the 2014 Sochi Winter games, will enter the official time trial in speed skating scheduled for Friday.

After winning three medals in Russia in February, Park skipped the national short track team trials for the 2014-2015 season.

During the offseason, Park began speed skating training alongside the retired speed skater Lee Kyou-hyuk.

Park, who also won two bronze medals at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games, joins the ranks of former short track speed skaters who have switched to long oval.

Lee Seung-hoon has so far been the most successful ex-short tracker in speed skating. He won the men’s 10,000 m gold medal and the 5,000 m silver medal at the 2010 Olympics, and added a silver in team pursuit in 2014.

Through her agency, Park said she wanted to give herself a new challenge and that she hopes to compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics, which will be held in South Korea’s PyeongChang.

“I thought about retiring after the Sochi Olympics, but I wanted to give myself a chance to skate at the PyeongChang Games,” she said. “I was never afraid of the switch because I am an optimistic person who likes to tackle challenges, and I’ve had a lot of help from people around me.”

Park has been training with Lee Sang-hwa, the two-time reigning Olympic champion and world record holder in the women’s 500 m speed skating. Sources said Park often posted the second-best time behind Lee in 500 m practice races.

As for the possibility that the two would go head-to-head in PyeongChang, Park said, “She’s at the top of the sport, and I am going to get help from her. Hopefully, we can get into some friendly competition.” (Yonhap)