Kim Min-seok, Eventually Naturalized as a Hungarian

Ice Skating Kim Min-seok, Eventually Naturalized as a Hungarian "Had no team or Income"

Kim Min-seok, who won three Olympic medals, is punished for drunk driving and chooses naturalization.

"I judged that it would be difficult to compete in the 2026 Olympics if I can't train."

Former national speed skating team member Kim Min-seok (25) has finally become a naturalized Hungarian citizen.

The Hungarian Skating Federation recently announced on its website that two athletes, Kim Min-seok and short track speed skating player Moon Won-jun, have completed the naturalization process. 토토사이트

Kim Min-seok explained the reason for his naturalization through the Hungarian Skating Federation.

He said, "I was suspended for three years in Korea for drunk driving," and "I don't want to make excuses for what happened back then.

I regret it and haven't driven since that incident."

He continued, "The Korea Skating Union offered us the opportunity to compete in the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics, but we decided that it would be difficult if we couldn't train for three years," and explained, "We were left without a team or income due to the disciplinary action."

Kim Min-seok and Moon Won-jun decided to become Hungarian naturalized citizens early this year, and it is known that they moved to Hungary in February to train there and go through the naturalization process.

The reason that Kim Min-seok, the star of Korean middle and long distance speed skating who won bronze medals in the men's 1,500m speed skating event at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, chose to become a naturalized citizen was due to a momentary mistake.

Kim Min-seok caused controversy by causing a drunk driving accident at the Jincheon Athletes' Village in Chungcheongbuk-do in July 2022, and was suspended for 1 year and 6 months by the Korea Skating Union's Sports Fair Play Committee in August of that year.

After that, he was sentenced to a fine of 4 million won in a trial in May of last year, and was suspended from the national team for 2 years by the Korea Sports Council.

Kim Min-seok's suspension from the national team was scheduled to end in May 2025, and accordingly, he was able to compete in the 2025-2026 National Speed ​​Skating Team Trials scheduled for October-November 2025 and aim for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

However, Kim Min-seok was unable to properly train on the ice after his contract with his former team, Seongnam City Hall, expired, and he accepted the offer of naturalization from coach Lee Cheol-won, the Korean coach of the Hungarian national ice skating team.

An official from Kim Min-seok's side said in a phone call with Yonhap News Agency early this year, "We tried to discourage him from choosing naturalization, but there was no other way," and "It is very difficult to prepare for the Olympic trials alone without any training support."

Kim Min-seok, who chose naturalization, can compete as a member of the Hungarian national team at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

According to Article 41, Paragraph 2 of the Olympic Charter of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), an athlete must wait three years after participating in an international competition with his previous nationality in order to change his nationality and compete in the Olympics.

However, Kim Min-seok has not competed in an official international competition since competing in the men's 1,000m event at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on February 18, 2022.

This is not the first time that an ace who dominated the Korean skating world has chosen naturalization.

Viktor Ahn (Korean name Ahn Hyun-soo), once Korea's top short track speed skater, naturalized as a Russian citizen in 2011 and won three gold medals at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, while short track ace Lin Xiaojun (Korean name Lim Hyo-jun), a gold medalist at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, was suspended from the Korea Skating Union for one year in 2019 due to an unpleasant incident with Hwang Dae-heon during training and became a naturalized Chinese citizen.

Meanwhile, Moon Won-jun, who was naturalized as a Hungarian citizen along with Kim Min-seok, said, "I was selected for the national team for the 2021 Lucerne Winter Universiade, but the competition was canceled due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), and I lost my national team status the following year."

He added, "I later had the opportunity to work as a training partner in Hungary, but I was surprised at how different the training methods were from Korea.

I didn't think I could skate well in Korea, and after thinking about how I could do better, I chose naturalization."

Moon Won-jun also said, "I don't speak English and I have never lived abroad, but coach Lee Cheol-won (of the Hungarian national team) helped me."

The situation of the Hungarian Skating Federation, which is in crisis, also influenced the naturalization of the two athletes.

The Hungarian Skating Federation suffered a major blow when the brothers Saolin Sandor Liu and Saoang Liu, who were active as star players of short track speed skating, naturalized to China in 2022.

Hungary pursued the naturalization of Kim Min-seok and Moon Won-jun in order to strengthen its international competitiveness.

Lujos Kosher, the president of the Hungarian Skating Federation, said, "Even though the Liu brothers are gone, we thought that we should create an environment where the national team players can train with the best players in the world," and "The naturalization of Kim Min-seok and Moon Won-jun, who have world-class skills, will have a positive effect not only on the two athletes but also on the existing national team players."