Skeleton Olympic champion Yun Sung-bin blesses South Korea with a moment of national euphoria

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First they called him "Iron Man." Now they're calling him the "Emperor."

When South Korea's Yun Sung-bin roared his way at 125 kph to a number one finish in skeleton at the Pyeongchang Games, he not only doubled his country's gold medal count so far. He also took home a series of other firsts: first South Korean gold medal outside skating; first Asian medalist in an Olympic sliding sport; fastest man ever down the slick ice at the Pyeongchang Games Olympic Sliding Centre.

His final time beat second-place Russian Nikita Tregubov by 1.63 seconds, a practical eternity. Not in 46 years has someone won an Olympic sliding race by so wide a margin.

It was as if the Cool Runnings bobsledders had not just made it to the Olympics, but also leapt to the top of the podium.

South Koreans heralded him as the newest athlete to take on, then conquer, a "wasteland sport" and win. The last person to do that, figure skater Kim Yuna, remains a national icon years after she hung up her skates. On social media, Yun was crowned "Skeleton Emperor" and "Emperor for a Decade." His victory was declared a "gift to the nation: on seolnal, the lunar new year celebrated Friday.

"Getting the gold medal in any Olympics is a very great result, but getting the gold here in my home country is a very great honour, much bigger than that," Yun said after his win, sliding in the Iron Man-design helmet that has made him famous.

For fans held in thrall by the 63-centimetre thighs on this "skeleton monster" there was hope that maybe the 23-year-old's victory marked the start of something else, too. Maybe, South Koreans hope, he "could be the first in a new era of Korean sports history," said Shim Chankoo, CEO of Sportizen, a Seoul-based sports marketing and consulting company.

"Skeleton, this sport is at its beginning. I'm happy that we started so well and for the future, I will do my best so that we continue to do well," Yun said Friday.

There was, of course, a more prosaic reason undergirding his success: like any host country, South Korea poured money into medal success. The Pyeongchang sliding course is only the second in Asia, after Nagano. And South Korea settled on Yun early to win a medal, supporting him enough that rivals from lesser-funded programs could only marvel.

Skeleton is "like Formula One, we are talking about hundredths" of a second, said Spanish competitor Ander Mirambell. "You must have a good sled, a good technician. If you see the Korean guy, he has the best material."

Yun did not start sliding until high school, when a teacher noticed his natural athletic ability. In 100-metre races, he would ask to start 10 metres back from others his age and still beat other runners. At 1.78-metres in height, he could grab a basketball rim with ease. Fellow athletes now laud his athletic "genius."

He had, however, never heard of skeleton when his teacher recommended he try it, and his first overseas practice session terrified him. "He called his mother and cried to her that 'he couldn't do skeleton,'" his high school teacher, Kim Young-tae, told Ohmynews, a local news outlet.

"He said he was in pain and it was so hard," his mother, Cho Young-hee, told the Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

But Yun proved both committed to the sport and extraordinarily gifted, finishing 16th in Sochi before rising to second in the world rankings by the 2015-16 season.

National investment helped, too.

"Korea wanted to focus on some sports where we could get medals in the 2018 Olympics," Shim said. "Skeleton was one in which the home track is relatively favourable to home athletes, and there is less competition owing to the smaller number of athletes in the world."

That program, however, has struggled to match its ambition. South Korea envisions a fourth-place Pyeongchang Olympics medals ranking, but currently stands in 10th, with two golds and a bronze. Outside hockey, the number of local registered athletes in Winter Olympic sports is actually declining.

Still, Yun's sliding Friday caught up the country in a moment of national euphoria. Television networks broadcast live every one of Yun's moves, from sharpening the blades on his sled to his elated bow, head touching the ground, after winning. Hours after the win, TV screens were still filled with replays.

Among those watching was Chun Lee-kyung, a four-time short-track speed skating gold medalist for South Korea – herself a pioneer in the country's winter sports.

Yun's performance gave her "goosebumps," she said.

South Korean winters, she said, will from now on have "a lot more kids sledding down hills. And the sliding centre, which was made to host the Olympic Games, will play a big role in the future of sledding events."

Yun "made a miracle, but this is not over. It's only just starting."

- With reports by Cynthia Yoo