Ice hockey professional dies "after eight months of fighting": he wrote Olympic history for his country
Created: 06/17/2022, 12:05 p.m
By: Antonio Jose Riether
Cho Min-ho succumbed to his illness at the age of 35.
© GEPA pictures/imago-images
Cho Min-ho wrote a piece of Olympic history for his native South Korea.
Now the ice hockey player died after a long illness at the age of just 35.
Seoul - The South Korean sports world mourns the loss of a major athlete, ice hockey player Cho Min-ho.
The centre, who played for Korean first division club Anyang Halla from 2015 to 2021, succumbed to his long illness at the age of 35.
At the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018, Cho scored a historic goal that went down in his country's hockey history books.
Olympic hero Cho Min-ho dies: only Olympic goalscorer in South Korea's ice hockey history
The South Korean national ice hockey team celebrated a premiere at the games in their own country.
The East Asian country took part in the ice hockey tournament for the first time as the host, and Cho scored the first goal for the South Korean team at the Olympics in the very first game.
Despite his opening goal to make it 1-0 against the Czech Republic, his team still lost 1-2.
South Korea was eliminated after three defeats in the three group games.
The underdog's final goal difference was 1:14 after the preliminary round - so Cho remains the first and only goalscorer in his country's Olympic history.
The South Korean team again didn't make it to the Olympic Games in Beijing this year.
Just ten months ago, they had to admit defeat in the qualification for the Winter Games. Cho Min-ho was there - as when they were eliminated in the qualification for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi - but could not avoid the defeats.
National ice hockey player Cho Min-ho dies after losing an eight-month battle with cancer
He captained his last international match and his team-mates found out he had lung cancer just a few weeks after the game.
In October, Cho returned from a training camp in the United States, and a short time later he shared his fate with his colleagues.
The International Ice Hockey Federation IIHF broke the news on Wednesday, the anniversary of Cho's death.
"After an eight-month battle with cancer, he died in a hospital in the capital Seoul," the world association said.
"The Korean ice hockey family will remember him not only as a great player but also as a great person and leader on and off the ice," the statement said.
(ajr)