FISU saddened by passing of 2013 WU Champion

LAUSANNE – FISU is saddened by the news that South Korea’s former world short track speed skating champion Noh Jin-kyu has died on 3 April at the age of 23 after suffering from cancer.

Noh set world records in the 1,500 and 3,000 metres in 2011 and won the overall title at the International Skating Union’s World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Sheffield that year. He had won a total of four gold medals at those Championships, including the overall title. Noh also won a gold medal in the 1,500m at the following year’s World Championships in Shanghai, along with three silver and bronze. He was the World Record holder for 1,500m and 3,000m.

At the 2013 Winter Universiade in Trentino, Italy, Noh grabbed the gold in two distances, in the 1,000m and 1,500m.

A benign tumor was discovered in his left shoulder in September 2013 but he delayed surgery to allow him to compete at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Noh broke his elbow in practice a month before the Games and examinations showed he had developed osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, with the tumor growing to 13 centimetres. Although Noh’s condition improved with treatment and being determined to compete at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, his condition had worsened over recent weeks losing his battle with the disease.

(Source: Inside the Games)