The attempt of short track legend Victor Ahn (Korean name Ahn Hyeon-soo), who was aiming to return to Korea as a leader, failed.
According to a Yonhap News report on the 29th, Viktor Ahn applied for the position of ice team coach in the workplace sports department at Seongnam City Hall, but he was not selected as a double candidate. Seongnam City plans to announce the results of the ice team coach selection on the 31st.
On the 29th, Seongnam City said, “A total of 7 people, including Victor Ahn and former Chinese national short track team coach Kim Seon-tae, applied for the recruitment screening for the city hall ice team coach position.”
An official from Seongnam 안전놀이터 City explained that applicants for the ice team coach position were judged by integrating various factors such as technology and communication skills through document and interview screening. In addition, he said that the opinions coming out through public opinion and media reports in the ice skating world were also reflected in the evaluation.
Victor Ahn started at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics wearing the Taegeuk mark at the age of 17 and wrote the history of winning the first three Olympic gold medals in Korean sports history at the 2006 Torino Olympics. He was named the first athlete to win four Olympic medals in a single event, adding one bronze.
However, after dropping out of the national team at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Ahn’s team, Seongnam City Hall, was disbanded the following year, putting him in the biggest crisis of his career.
Afterwards, he chose to naturalize in Russia to extend his active career, and at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, he won three gold medals as a Russian national representative, showing the appearance of a short track emperor without regret.
After his retirement, he also showed potential for success as a leader. At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, as a coach for the Chinese national team, he guided athletes to the men’s 1000m and 2000 mixed relay gold medals.
After taking a break for a year, he tried to continue his leadership career at Seongnam City Hall, where he had worked in the past, but as a result of the final interview, returning to Korea was a failure.