Short track star Victor An retires

MOSCOW: South Korean-born short-track speed skating star Victor An announced his retirement from sports on Wednesday, Russian media reported.

The 32-year-old An, won six Olympic golds, three for South Korea in 2006 and three for Russia in 2014, has also decided to leave Russia for family reasons.“Unfortunately Viktor An decided to end his career and to leave Russia,” Russia’s Skating Union chief Alexei Kravtsov told the Interfax agency. “We’re very grateful for his contribution to short track development in Russia.

“It is not impossible that we can continue our cooperation in the future.”An competed in the 2002 Olympics as a teenager but in Turin four years later, he became the second Korean to win three golds in one Games.

He missed out on selection for the South Korean team in 2010 after being beset by injury problems and falling out with South Korean skating officials.

An Hyun-Soo was fast-tracked for Russian citizenship in 2011, took the name Victor An and became Russia’s number one short track athlete as the 2014 Games in Sochi loomed. There he won the host nation’s first ever short-track golds.

This year An was not allowed to compete in the Pyeongchang Winter Games in his native South Korea in the aftermath of a state-sponsored doping scandal in Russia.