Seventeen-year-old Choi Ga-on, Korea’s first Olympic gold medalist on snow, to receive 363 million won and a 1 million won monthly pension

[Financial News] Choi Ga-on of Sehwa Girls’ High School, who captured Korea’s first-ever gold medal in ski and snowboard events at the 2026 Milan–Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Olympics, will receive a cash bonus worth hundreds of millions of won from the Korea Ski & Snowboard Association.
On the 13th, Choi Ga-on took first place in the women’s snowboard halfpipe final at Livigno Snowpark with a score of 90.25.
With this victory, Choi became the first Korean athlete ever to win a gold medal in a snow event and also delivered the first gold medal for Team Korea at these Games.
Choi Ga-on, who is 17 years and 3 months old, claimed gold ahead of Chloe Kim of the United States (88.00 points) and Ono Mitsuki of Japan (85.00 points). She also broke Chloe Kim’s record as the youngest Olympic champion in this event, set at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang at 17 years and 10 months.
As a newly crowned Olympic gold medalist, Choi Ga-on will receive 300 million won in prize money from the Korea Ski & Snowboard Association.
The Korea Ski & Snowboard Association has set Olympic medal bonuses at 300 million won for gold, 200 million won for silver, and 100 million won for bronze.
Since Lotte Group became the association’s chair company in 2014 and steadily expanded the reward program, the association has been paying bonuses down to sixth place: 50 million won for fourth, 30 million won for fifth, and 10 million won for sixth.
Beyond the Olympics, bonuses are also awarded for placements from first to sixth at the World Championships, World Cup events, Youth Olympics, and Junior World Championships.
Last year alone, athletes who produced results at major international competitions such as the World Championships and World Cup received a total of 155 million won in bonuses, and since 2016 the association has paid out 1.2 billion won in prize money.
At this Olympics, Choi Ga-on will receive 300 million won, Kim Sang-gyeom of High1, who won silver in the men’s snowboard parallel giant slalom, will get 200 million won, and Yoo Seung-eun of Seongbok High School, who took bronze in women’s snowboard big air, will receive 100 million won.
Choi Ga-on will also be presented with a watch from Omega, the official timekeeper of the Olympics.
Omega had announced that it would award a “Speedmaster 38 mm Olympic Edition” timepiece to one athlete who wins the first individual gold medal of these Games. The model is currently listed at 9.5 million won on Omega’s official website.
On top of that, Choi will receive 63 million won in government prize money for Olympic gold medalists, as well as a performance enhancement pension from the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation (KSPO).
The pension amount is determined by a points-based evaluation system. Olympic gold medalists are eligible to receive either a monthly payment of 1 million won or a lump sum of 67.2 million won.

newssu@fnnews.com Kim Soo-yeon Reporter