The 2025 International Skating Union (ISU) World Short Track Speed Skating Championships, which will determine the best short track speed skater for the 2024-2025 season, will be held in Beijing from 14 to 16 October. The Korea Skating Association stipulates that one or more individual gold medals in this World Championships and the best male and female players in the team will be automatically awarded the national representative qualification for the 2025-2026 season, and the Korean short track speed skating team led by Park Ji-won, Choi Min-jung, Kim Ji-ri and other famous players may give it a go at this World Championships.

Champion Cui Minjing (left) and runner-up Jin Jili skate on the field after the women's 1,000m short track speed skating final at the 2025 Asian Winter Games on February 9

With the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics coming next season, the World Championships will be virtually nothing short of the first round of the Olympic trials for South Koreans. It is expected that the national team players will compete fiercely not only with foreign players, but also with domestic players.

South Korea's men's team Park Ji-won, Lee Jung-so, Kim Jian-woo, Jang Sung-woo and Seo Yi-ra will participate in this World Championships. The women's group is contested by Choi Min-jeong, Kim Ji-ri, Kim Kun-hee, Roh Do-hee, and Lee So-yeon.

Although it is a matter of qualification for the Winter Olympics, there are also South Korean athletes who have given up participating. Kim Tae-sung and Park Chang-hyuk in the men's group and Shim Seok-hee in the women's group will not participate. Their focus is on the first and second rounds of the national team selection tournament that will be held from the 4th of next month.

Park Ji-won trained in the Heilongjiang Provincial Ice Training Center on the afternoon of February 3, four days before the opening of the 2025 Asian Winter Games

South Korea's men's signature player Park Ji-won will erase the nightmare of last year's World Championships and challenge to secure a ticket to the Winter Olympics. Park Ji-won, who is ranked No. 1 in the world in the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons, was fouled by Hwang Dae-heon, a junior of the national team, at the 2024-2025 World Championships, which is the automatic selection right of the national team, and failed to automatically obtain the Tai Chi badge.

At that time, Park Ji-won failed to win medals in the men's 1000m and men's 1500m finals due to a foul by Hwang Dae-heon. Park Ji-won, who failed to win the gold medal, had to participate in the domestic selection competition, and it took several twists and turns to keep the Taiji badge. After the 2023 World Championships (2 golds and 1 bronze), Park Ji-won is attacking for the gold medal again after 2 years.

Park Ji-won's biggest contender is Canada's William Danjinu. Danjinu is a rising star in short track speed skating and is ranked No. 1 overall in the world for the 2024-2025 season. He finished first in the men's 1500m this season, while the 500m and 1000m were both second. Lin Xiaojun, the "first brother" of the Chinese team who had a fierce competition with Park Zhiyuan at the 2025 Harbin Asian Winter Games, underwent left shoulder surgery last month and will not participate in the World Championships. Kim Jian-woo, who improved his physical condition after undergoing ankle surgery last November, and Jang Sung-woo, who gained experience at the Harbin Asian Winter Games, are considered dark horses.

On February 6, Park Jiwon, Kim Ji-ri, Choi Min-jung and other South Korean short track speed skating team players trained in the comprehensive hall of Heilongjiang Ice Training Center

The competition in the women's group focused on the competition of Choi Minjing and Kim Ji-ri. The two skaters are the world's top skaters who are hard to tell. Choi Min-jung took a one-season break after winning one gold and two silvers at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, during which Kim Jiri became the ace of the Korean national team and made a name for herself on the international stage.

Kim Jili is ranked No. 1 in the women's world overall ranking in the 2023-2024 season, and after winning gold in the women's 1500m and silver in the women's 1000m at last year's World Championships, she was automatically selected for the national team.

Among the foreign players, the likes of Kristen Santos-Grizwold of the United States, Sandra Fezebul (Netherlands) and Hanaldez Shuai (Belgium) will compete fiercely with Choi Minjing and Kim Jili.

The competition will be held on the 14th, and the men's 500m and 1500m, women's 1000m, and women's 3000m relay finals will be held on the 15th. On the 16th, the men's 1000m, women's 500m, 1500m, men's 5000m relay and mixed 2000m relay finals will be held.