Host nation's Yun Sung-bin slides to gold in men’s skeleton

Yun held the lead after each of four runs on his home track, finishing a comfortable 1.63 seconds ahead of second-placed Nikita Tregubov (OAR) with Dom Parsons (GBR) claiming the bronze medal.

Yun - who won five of the eight men’s World Cup races in 2018 and was a world championship silver medallist in 2017 – became the first Republic of Korea athlete to win a medal in a sliding sport. He is also the first athlete from Asia to medal in the skeleton, in which competitors slide head-first and solo down a twisting ice track.

Yun built a lead of more than one second after three runs, ensuring that only a major error - which he averted – in the final heat could rob him of a highly-anticipated gold medal in front of a home crowd that has closely followed the popular athlete’s Olympic journey. 

Yun thundered over the finish line at over 125 kilometres per hour in front of a euphoric home crowd, then took off his helmet and gave a deep bow on his hands and knees.“It is not my effort alone that got me this medal. I would like to thank all my team for helping me, encouraging me. It is still unbelievable that I got the gold medal. I would like to again thank everyone on my team for always encouraging me,” he said.

“Getting the gold medal in any Olympics is a very great result but getting the gold here in my home country is a very great honour, much bigger than that.”Tregubov described his silver medal as “a very great honour”.

“It was a very hard time for me actually, but right now I experience unbelievable feelings. It is an unbelievable experience to get a medal in this Olympics.”

Parsons' bronze was the first skeleton medal for a British male since 1948.