Ulaanbaatar
Mongolian athlete wins first ever gold medal in Winter Youth Olympics
VideoA Mongolian athlete Sumiya Buyantogtokh won a gold medal in the mixed team sprint event of speed-skating on Wednesday at the 2016 Youth Winter Olympic Games, which is continuing in Lillehammer of Norway.
In the all-new event, 13 teams of two men and two women from mixed National Olympic Committees were grouped together, with each race run over 1.6 km. It was won, in one minute 57.85 seconds, by ‘mixed team six’, consisting of Sumiya of Mongolia, Italy’s Noemi Bonazza, Shen Hanyang of China and the men’s 500m bronze medalist from Republic of Korea, Chung Jae Woong.
By contributing to her team’s gold-medal performance, Sumiya became the first Mongolian to win a medal at any Olympic Winter Games. "Before the race, I was afraid. Now I can't believe I won the gold," she said. “I was very stressed. It was a lot of pressure, but I’m very proud. It was wonderful working with other countries” she said.
Silver and bronze medals went to the team-9 consisting of the Netherlands, Poland, the USA and Kazakhstan; and the team-10 (Italy, Romania, Germany and Norway), respectively.
Mongolia is also being represented by Ochirsukh Adiyabaatar. He has competed in classical sprint and cross-country cross races of cross-country event, and he will participate in 10-km freestyle race.
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