3,000 metres Relay, Women

While South Korea had been one of the dominant nations in women’s short track for some years, they had never won the relay at the World Championships, only the Olympic title. Since the Korean victory in 1994, Canada, China and Italy had divided the world titles. With Italy not having qualified for the Games, the other three teams made it to the final, along with Japan. The race quickly became a duel between China and South Korea, which left Canada and Japan far behind. China kept the lead most of the way, until Yang Yang (A) was passed by Kim Yun-Mi with just a few hundred metres to go. The Koreans held on to the lead, winning in a world record time of 4:16.260. The Chinese also beat their former record, finishing just 0.123 seconds back. Canada was not threatened for the bronze.

The Korean team featured three of the four champions from Lillehammer, Jeon I-Gyeong, Won Hye-Gyeong and Kim, with [An Sang-Mi] as a new member. In 1994, they had all still been teenagers. In Nagano, all South Korean team members were at least 18-years-old.