Yun Sung-Bin is in position to make history. After the first two runs of the men’s skeleton, not only is he situated to win South Korea’s first medal in a sliding sport (skeleton, bobsled, or luge), he could win gold. Yun is in first place after the first day of completion in his home country, a whopping 0.74 seconds ahead of second place. Yun was simply dominant.
Nikita Tregubov, an Olympic Athlete from Russia, is in second place. Martins Dukurs of Latvia, who won silver in Sochi, is in third place, 0.88 seconds back of Yun.
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Americans Matt Antoine, who won bronze in Sochi, and John Daly, finished Day 1 in 11th and 13, respectively. With Antoine 0.91 seconds out of medal position, it's very unlikely Team USA will win a medal in skeleton in PyeongChang.
Yun, 23, set the pace with a blistering first run, putting up a track record mark of 50.28 seconds. It was a sensational run for the athlete with the Ironman helmet.
He was somehow better in his second run, clipping 0.21 seconds off his course record in front of a frenzied South Korean crowd. After the dominant performance on Day 1, Yun would need to falter badly over his final two runs to lose gold, and even more so to fall out of medal position.
There is a small chance South Korea picks up two medals. Kim Jisoo finished the first run in fourth and is in sixth heading into the final two runs. .
Matt Antoine won bronze in Sochi, but had a mediocre season in the lead up to the 2018 Winter Games. On his first run, he hit the wall coming out of the infamous ninth turn and struggled the rest of the run, essentially ending his shot at a medal.
John Daly was in fourth place heading into the final run in Sochi, but had a disastrous final run to fall out of medal contention all the way to 15th place. He came back to the sport after retiring to rewrite his Olympic history, but his first run left him wanting more. He was never able to find his line and finished the run in 13th place. The second run didn’t go much better, and 1.15 seconds out of third, it’s very unlikely he will challenge for a medal.
Competition will resume with the final two runs on Feb. 15 at 7:30 p.m. ET. You can watch the live stream of the event here.