International Skating Union President Kim Jae-youl poses for a photo after an interview with Yonhap News Agency at Mokdong Ice Rink in Seoul on Dec. 14, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — For the 2024-2025 season, the International Skating Union (ISU) rebranded its Short Track Speed Skating World Cup as the Short Track World Tour. And the name change only tells a small part of the story.
From teams adopting nicknames — such as the White Tigers for South Korea, the Eagles for the United States, the Lions for the Netherlands and the Ninjas for Japan — to skaters donning uniforms bearing their team mascots to a new video replay system for infractions, the World Tour is a completely different circuit than the World Cup.
The ISU has also tried to improve fan experience at World Tour events, highlighted by more entertainment elements in event presentations featuring DJs, live bands and light shows. The pace of the competition has also improved, with shorter breaks between races designed to keep fans engaged.
Overseeing the transformation is the ISU’s South Korean President Kim Jae-youl, the first non-European head in the 132-year history of the global skating body. Since being elected to the position in June 2022, Kim, also a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has kept his focus on growing skating sports and making them more accessible to a larger population. And he has done so without losing sight of what he calls the ISU’s most important assets, the athletes.
Kim spent the past weekend in Seoul, with Mokdong Ice Rink hosting the fourth leg of the World Tour. In a wide-ranging interview with Yonhap News Agency at the arena on Saturday, Kim spoke about the evolution of skating sports on his watch and what he wants to accomplish going forward.
Discussing recent changes in short track, Kim said he saw untapped potential in the sport that he wanted to see fully realized.
“Short track is such a fast-paced, dynamic and unpredictable sport. And I thought long and hard about how to best capitalize on what makes short track so great,” Kim said. “Short track has immense potential but we haven’t been able to maximize it. We’ve been making changes to try to make it more popular.”
Kim said he was “very satisfied” with how the World Tour had played out over the past two months and added he had received positive feedback from the skaters.
“We will look to keep upgrading the World Tour,” he said. “We will identify what worked the best at each stop and create a standard based on that, so that no matter where a World Tour event takes place, it has to meet those requirements. That will help raise the overall quality of the series.”
The ISU created the Crystal Globe ahead of the 2022-2023 season, presenting it to the World Cup, now the World Tour, points leaders on the men’s and women’s sides at the end of each season. For this season, the ISU added the Team Crystal Globe.
Kim said some skaters have spoken to him about having extra motivation this season to be part of the inaugural Crystal Globe-winning team.
International Skating Union (ISU) President Kim Jae-youl explains changes to the 2024-2025 ISU Short Track World Tour season during an interview with Yonhap News Agency at Mokdong Ice Rink in Seoul on Dec. 14, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
“Giving countries their own icons and names has also enhanced fan engagement,” Kim added. “We wanted to improve fans’ emotional attachment to their teams, like in professional sports.”
While short track may still be a niche sport in other places, it has a substantial following in South Korea, the most decorated country in Olympic short track history with 26 gold medals and 53 medals overall.
Other nations have been pushing South Korea hard lately, though. As recently as 2019, South Korea swept up seven out of 10 gold medals up for grabs at the world championships, with the Netherlands winning the remaining three. In 2022, South Korea still topped all teams with five gold medals, but Hungary took home four gold medals.
Then at the 2023 worlds in Seoul, the Netherlands came out on top in the medal table with five gold medals and eight total medals. South Korea settled for two gold medals and six medals overall.
In March this year, it was China’s turn to lead the way with four gold medals, while South Korea finished with just one gold medal. More notably, five different countries won at least one gold medal, and a record nine countries came away with a medal.
“At last year’s world championships, Australia and Kazakhstan each won a medal, and their skaters didn’t simply get lucky because others ahead of them fell down. They raced their way to the podium,” Kim said. “They’re skating well so far this season. And when you look at the top 10 in Crystal Globe points for men, we have skaters from Latvia, Poland and Japan. The level of competition has been elevated.”
Kim said he understands how this development may frustrate South Korean fans, who are accustomed to seeing their short trackers gobble up medals at international events. When looking at a bigger picture, though, Kim said this is a boon for short track.
International Skating Union (ISU) President Kim Jae-youl (R) listens to video referees inside the replay room set up at Mokdong Ice Rink in Seoul on Dec. 14, 2024, during the fourth leg of the ISU Short Track World Tour. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
“When there is more parity at a higher level, it will make the pie bigger, and it will lead to more fans around the world and more interest from sponsors,” Kim said. “Ultimately, I want great things for our athletes. And with more fans, more sponsors and more TV coverage, it will help our revenue. We can invest that money to create more events and raise prize money, which will benefit the athletes. That’s my dream and hope.”
Kim refused to take sole credit for changes on the ice, instead praising a number of new ISU executives with backgrounds in sports other than skating — such as football, golf, basketball, skiing and even mixed martial arts — for offering fresh perspectives.
“This was by design. We wanted to find people who can look at skating through a different lens,” Kim said. “They will keep coming up with ideas and you can count on seeing more changes.”
Kim also cited a quote from IOC President Thomas Bach: “Change, or be changed.”
“I believe this applies to all sports,” Kim said. “Obviously, tradition is important and we have to preserve what we have to preserve. But at the same time, we wanted to modernize skating to make it more appealing to younger people. That’s why we’ve hired executives from different backgrounds.”
One significant change in another skating sport, figure skating, was confirmed just days before Kim was elected in June 2022. The ISU decided to raise the minimum age for senior figure skating competitions from 15 to 16 for the 2023-2024 season and then to 17 for the 2024-2025 season, with no further change thereafter.
Kim said he believes the ISU made “the right decision” because it was done to protect young athletes, both physically and mentally.
“As is the case in all the other sports, athletes are our biggest assets, and we want to protect them and make sure they can have long careers,” Kim said. “Skaters at 15 are particularly vulnerable to injuries from excessive training. Also, mental health has become such an important topic in sports. We’ve seen cases where world-class young athletes struggled mentally after coming down from the top of their sport, due to injury or other reasons. We raised the age limit to ensure that athletes will be prepared physically and mentally to have extensive careers.”
Figure skating has had a different look over the past couple of years not just because of the age limit, but because of the absence of Russian stars. In March 2022, the ISU banned athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus from all ISU competitions due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine earlier that year.
The IOC, saying it didn’t want to penalize athletes just because of their passport, allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals at this year’s Paris Olympics, on the condition that they did not support the war and had no ties to the military.
The IOC has not yet made a decision for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. However, a recent Russian media report claimed that the ISU planned to allow Russian and Belarusian figure skaters to participate in an Olympic qualification event, with the final decision expected next spring.
Kim said no winter sport federation, including the ISU, has made a decision on the Winter Games eligibility of Russian and Belarusian athletes, adding, “We’re monitoring the situation.”
With the first Winter Olympics of his term a little over a year away, Kim said he was “extremely satisfied” with how things have progressed over his first 2 1/2 years in charge.
Though Kim said it was too early to give a self-assessment on his term so far, he did allow himself a moment to reflect on why he wanted to become president of the ISU in the first place.
“Skating has such a rich history and is one of the most popular sports at Winter Olympics. And I wanted to develop it even further, so that young people and children could enjoy the sport,” Kim said. “Fortunately, ISU member associations acknowledged my desire and determination. My duty going forward is to make sure more people will enjoy skating.”
(Yonhap)
