In racing, tactics, including fierce jockeying for position, are an important part of the rankings, so the best performers don't always win. This is even more true for the second and third places than for the first.
This situation makes it inevitable that there will be fierce battles, and in the process, there will be small and large falls. It"s a sad sight to see, and it"s not just in racing, but also in other cycling disciplines and short track events on ice.
But there is a big difference. Unlike amateur or Olympic cycling, which is an occasional event, racing is a weekly professional event. The number of races per year is fixed. Like other professional sports, including baseball, soccer, basketball, and other ball sports, if you don't fulfill your quota at the end of the year, it doesn't carry over to the next year.
For these athletes, injuries sustained during competition or training are far more devastating than for amateur athletes, who always have plenty of time to rest and prepare.
Athletes who have worked hard to climb the ranks are under pressure to drop down the rankings if they get injured, and if they are unable to compete due to illness, it also affects their livelihood, as prize money is their main source of income. It's a double whammy, physically and mentally.
In the past, athletes were forced to compete half-heartedly and half-heartedly, even when their physical injuries or mental after-effects were not fully resolved.
It is not surprising that athletes who have not fully recovered have not performed well, which is why it is common practice to check the injury list of athletes beforehand and exclude athletes with fractures and other injuries from races where they have returned.
This is how the conventional wisdom of the sport came to be known as "scratch the rider after the fall". However, this is now becoming a thing of the past.
Yoo Sang-yong (11th, B2, Ilsan, Korea), who competed in the 13th starting-level race in Changwon, made his comeback 24 weeks after being dropped from the Changwon race on Oct. 21 last year, and finished third on the first day and second on the second day. This was an improvement over his previous three races, where he finished fifth, seventh, and fourth, respectively.
Heo Nam-yeol (24kg, B1, Gapyeong), who competed in the Gwangmyeong Starter Class, also had a 14-week absence due to a fall in early January, but finished third on his first race back and second on the second day. After a 26-week absence, top-ranked Lee Yong-hee (13th, A2, Dongseoul) also showed his health with a third-place finish on his first day back. Although he was only ranked fifth in the day's popularity rankings, he defied the odds and jumped up two spots.
The specialty classes are no exception to the rule that if you let your guard down, your ranking can plummet in an instant. Kim Dong-kwan (13th, S3, Gyeonggi Individual), Shin Eun-seop (18th, S1, Dongseoul), Kim Kwan-hee (23rd, S1, Sejong), Noh Hyung-gyun (25th, S1, Soosung), and Lee Tae-ho (20th, S1, Shinsa) were able to maintain or even improve their rankings before their fall injuries.
Why is it that the performance of athletes returning from injury is maintained or improved as much as before the injury, unlike in the past?
Experts believe that the decisive reason is that the General Headquarters of Keirin Keirin supports long-term injured athletes with workers' compensation insurance and group accident insurance to maintain their livelihood. The amount of time off work and the amount of workers' compensation insurance coverage allows athletes to maintain a certain level of living expenses while they are unable to compete, allowing them to recover from their injuries and prepare for a smooth comeback with sufficient training.
Experts also agree that the quality of keiretsu racing has been improving, and this is a big part of the reason behind the recent spate of high-profile races.
"The recent trend is that athletes can show their previous performance if they manage well after an injury," said Park Chang-hyun, publisher of Prediction magazine Choi Kang Kyung-ryun. "Above all, the will to train and the amount of training are the parts that can give a glimpse into the will of athletes who have a gap, so intensive observation and information collection will help predict the race."