Sino-NK

North Korean skier Ri Yong-gum as shown after completing the women’s 10-kms individual cross-country free-style race in Pyeongchang in 2018. | Image: Olympic Channel.

North Korean athletes were set to miss the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, the third of the past four Games the DPRK has failed to attend after skipping the Tokyo 2020 Olympics without securing permission from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). This unsanctioned absence during the Covid-19 pandemic led to the IOC suspending the DPRK through 2022 and the Beijing Winter Olympics of the same year, before returning to the Paris Summer Games in 2024. Having missed Sochi in 2014, North Korea has therefore only competed in one Winter Games since the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

North Korea has not competed in a Winter Games since Pyeongchang 2018 in South Korea when the DPRK sent a small team of female skiers including Ri Yong-gum (리영금). This article traces the history of Ri’s career before Pyeongchang and her absence from international ski events thereafter, a reflection of the lack of participation of North Korean athletes since the onset of the global pandemic.

Ri received a special invitation from the Olympic Committee to participate in the women’s 10-kms individual cross-country free-style race in Pyeongchang one month before the event, an indication of the special dispensation afforded the DPRK. This was a Games intended to showcase and strengthen intra-Korean cooperation, and included a joint Korea’s women’s ice hockey team, the first in history, with both North and South marching under the same unification flag during the opening and closing ceremonies. Altogether, 22 North Koreans competed south of the DMZ.[1]

Little was known about Ri prior to Pyeongchang, and still information on her remains scarce. She was born on 20 April 1999,[2] and was therefore just 18 years old when she competed in Pyeongchang on 15 February 2018. This is very young for an Olympics skiing athlete. Those under 23 years old are considered juniors, and not yet mature skiers. As a point of reference, Marit Bjørgen, the Norwegian skiing queen, was 37 years old in Pyeongchang, winning five medals.

The Fédération Internationale de Ski et de Snowboard (FIS), the world body which regulates the sport, is an organisation composed of national ski clubs through which Olympic skiers must qualify prior to a Winter Games every four years. Ri’s club was listed with FIS as Jangjasan (장자산), named after a mountain in Janggang County (장강군) in Chagang province in the north of the DPRK adjacent to the Chinese border. It remains unclear whether Ri has actually skied the slopes of this mountain, and instead her affiliation may be related to Jangjasan University in Kanggye. The city was the de facto capital of the North Korean state as it shrank under the US-ROK invasion north in late 1950, the place where Kim Il-sung and son Kim Jong-il took refuge, and where the latter planted two pine trees, according to North Korean accounts.[3]

To qualify for the Pyeongchang Games, Ri was required to participate in an international ski contest, and since North Korea did not have any such event she ventured overseas, to Russia. Aged just 17, Ri travelled across Russia to Apatity, in Murmansk Oblast near the border with Finland, in April 2017. There she took part in the women’s 5-kms individual cross-country free-style race, finishing last out of 89 competitors, the vast majority of them Russians, as well as seven Belarussians.

She was joined in Apatity at the same event by another female North Korean skier, Ko Kwang-suk (고광숙), seven years older than Ri, also of Jangjasan club. Ko placed 88th at the event, one position and 11 seconds ahead of Ri. The two North Koreans completed the course about five minutes behind the winners of the race, indicating the extent to which the DPRK remained far behind its Russian and Belarussian counterparts in the lead up to the Pyeongchang Games.

An additional two male North Korean skiers also took part in Apatity that year, both in the men’s 10-kms individual cross-country free-style race: Han Chun-gyong (한춘경), then 22 years old; and Pak Il-Chol (박일철), 20. Pak proceeded to finish last, while Han came in third from last, and as such was only the only one among the four North Koreans competing at the event to beat a competitor from another country. Both men were listed as affiliated to Pothaesan club, which likely refers to Pothaesan Mountain in Samjiyon, Ryanggang province, the well-known anti-Japanese revolutionary resort adjacent to the border with China. Both men also went on to compete in Pyeongchang, with Apatity therefore used as a notable pre-qualification event for the North Korean skiers.

Technically, all of the North Koreans had failed to qualify for Pyeongchang. According to FIS regulations, long-distance cross-country skiing qualification for the Pyeongchang Games was set at a maximum of 100 qualifying points, with lower scores reflecting a stronger performance than higher ones, and therefore anything over 100 representing a failure to make the grade. Ri secured 362.44 points, Ko 351.20, Pak 295.17, and Han 251.62. Ri therefore was the furthest from qualification, according to FIS rules, but all four athletes were permitted to compete according to the IOC’s B Qualification stipulation which normally dictates that a sprint or 10-kms female or 15-kms male skier achieve a maximum of 300.00 points through FIS events. Again, the IOC bent the rules to allow Ri and Ko to participate in Pyeongchang despite not achieving this qualification cut-off, though Ko actually did not end up skiing in the 2018 Olympics. Their attendance had been agreed after the sports ministers of North and South Korea met with IOC President Thomas Bach in Switzerland in early January of 2018.[4]

North Korea competes in the South

A North Korean cheerleading squad prepares to watch the unified Korean women’s ice hockey team at Pyeongchang in 2018. | Image: Sino-NK

The introduction of dozens of B Qualification skiers from countries including North Korea, and also lesser winter sports nations such as Australia, Brazil, Togo and Thailand creates its own logistical issues during a Winter Games. A mass start, whereby everyone would race off at the same time, is considered too dangerous with such a varied skill level. To solve the problem, the IOC essentially creates two races within one event: one for the A Qualification competitors, who set off and finish first in one batch; and the B Qualification participants who set off in 30-second intervals, meaning skiers tend to race alone and accidents are minimized. The idea is therefore that the second contingent essentially compete against themselves, with participation rather than a placed finish the ultimate goal. It was in the latter category that the North Korean skiers found themselves in Pyeongchang.

Ri and her fellow North Korean skiers come from a country with a lack of skiing tradition, as seen also with China ahead of its own Winter Games four years after Pyeongchang, in 2022. To prepare, China sent many of its skiers to Nordic countries in advance to gain valuable experience, but it was mostly too little too late.

Marit Bjørgen, the Norwegian cross-country skier with the most Olympic Golds in history (eight in total, of which two came in Pyeongchang), participated in her first skiing competition aged seven, and only won her first international gold medal at 22. A top Scandinavian skier will typically spend about 1,000 hours skiing each year. North Korean skiers, by contrast, barely compete in international events and are thought to spend far less time on the snow.

When Ri reached Pyeongchang, she completed the 10-kms cross-country course in 36:40 minutes, setting out as the last competitor and finishing second last ahead of the 37-year-old Chilean athlete Claudia Salcedo, an employee of the Chilean military.[5] En route, Ri slid off the track, went the wrong way – all while escaping injury – and cried visibly after reaching the finish. Despite her lowly finish, young Ri was clearly a promising athlete by the time she completed the Pyeongchang race three months before her 19^th birthday, among the youngest in the competition

Han and Pak did even better in the male cross-country event, raising their overall standing considerably. Han started as number 117, finishing as 101, while Pak rose from 118 to 107, both of them passing several representatives of other nations.

North Korea thus has talented skiers who appear to train outside of the better-funded Pyongyang circuit, but their advancement remains difficult unless they participate in international tournaments. As of early February 2026, the FIS portal had no new information on any recent activity of these North Koreans, suggesting they were never sent abroad to enter qualification events prior to the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. In 2018, North Korea broke its usual custom of not sending abroad athletes considered potential winners, in the name of competing alongside South Koreans in Pyeongchang – but not in 2026.

It therefore remains unclear to what extent Ri, Han or Pak may have developed their skills and careers. Ri would be nearly 26 years old currently, and therefore in her prime skiing years. Having now missed three of the past four Winter Games in a row, with Pyeongchang their only attendance since 2010, it also remains unclear when North Korean skiers will next compete in a Winter Olympics.

---

[1] “22 North Korean athletes will compete at the Pyeongchang Olympics, including 12 women’s ice hockey players,” Pressian.com [accessed on 4 February 2026], https://www.pressian.com/pages/articles/183334.

[2] Ri Yong-gum, Athlete Biography, FIS [accessed on 4 February 2026], https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/general/athlete-biography.html?sector=CC&competitorid=219145&type=stats.

[3] Kanggye, Geography, NK Chosun [accessed 4 February 2026], https://nk.chosun.com/bbs/view.html?idxno=2237&sc_category=.

[4] “Winter Olympics 2018: North Korea will send 22 athletes to Pyeongchang,” BBC Sport, 20 January 2018 [accessed on 4 February 2026], https://www.bbc.com/sport/winter-olympics/42759924.

[5] Claudia Salcedo, Athlete Biography, FIS [accessed 4 February 2026], https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/general/athlete-biography.html?sectorcode=CC&competitorid=184662&type=result.