Lee Sang-hwa
- This is about current female speed skater; for the poet during 1920s-1940s, see Yi Sang-hwa.
.jpg) Lee Sang-Hwa at a 2006 World Cup in Thialf (Heerenveen, The Netherlands) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Height | 1.63 m (5 ft 4 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 58 kg (128 lb; 9.1 st) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Country |  South Korea | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Speed skating | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Lee Sang-Hwa (Korean: 이상화, Hanja: 李相花, born 25 February 1989 in Seoul) is a South Korean long track speed skater who specialises in the sprint distances. She is an Olympic gold medalist and a World Championships medalist on the 500 metres, and on this distance she has also placed in the top three in World Cup events four times. Her first World Cup victory, however, came on the non-Olympic distance 100 metres. On the 1,000 metres, however, she has never been better than eighth in international events.
Early life and education
Lee Sang-Hwa was born to father Lee U-geun, a technician at Hwigyeong Girls School and mother Kim In-sun in 1989. Lee has an older brother, Lee Sang-jun to have been a skater. When she was in her first grade at Eunseok Elementary School, Lee started skating to keep up with her brother. Although Lee's brother excelled at skating and won a skating competition held in his elementary school, Lee appeared to have more talents in skating than him. Since their parents could not afford to support the extra activity of their children together, only Lee could continue skating.[1][2]
Lee is remembered by her school teachers as a smart and active student. Lee and Mo Tae-Bum, gold medalist at Vancouver 2010 are close friends since their elementary school period. Along with him, Lee is currently attending Korea National Sport University.[3][4]
Career
Lee first competed internationally aged 14 in Canada, where she skated several test races in October 2003, winning comfortably and skating with a best time of 39.02 seconds. At the time, the U19 world record was 38.53. Her first ISU championship was in Roseville, Minnesota during the 2004 World Junior Championships. As the youngest participant, she finished 16th, though she took third place on the 500 metres 0.45 seconds behind world junior record holder Shannon Rempel.
The following season, she raced 38.77 in test races in Calgary, and was selected for the World Cup races in Nagano, Harbin and Calgary. She placed eighth in her first race, recording 38.71 in the M-Wave, Nagano, 0.29 seconds behind winner Wang Manli. She finished in the top ten a further five times that season, including two fourth-place finishes in 100 metre sprints, which gave her fifth place overall in the 100 metre World Cup. In other achievements, she won two senior Korean titles (on 2 × 500 metres and sprint, and came 14th in the 500 metres World Cup standings, 16th in the 1000 metres, and 15th in the samalog standings in the World Sprint Championships, though she was within half a second of the winner on both 500 metre races, finishing 9th and 12th.
In World Championships, Lee won three medals this season; two in the junior championships, where she won bronze in the overall standings, though she was four points after the winner after 16th place on the 1500 and 19th on the 3000 metre event, and silver with the Korean team in the team pursuit event. And during the World Single Distance Championships in Inzell in March, two fourth-places were enough to take her to third place overall in the 500 metre competition, behind Chinese skaters Wang Manli and Wang Beixing.
In 2006, Lee improved on the 100 and 500 metres, though she fell into the B division on the 1000 metres. She finished on the World Cup podium four times during the season, including a win in the 100 metre World Cup final, though she finished behind Jenny Wolf in the overall standings. On the 500 metres, she was sixth in the World Cup. She also added three senior Korean titles to her record, winning the 500 metres, 1000 metres, and overall sprint championship. During the season, she registered a world junior record on the 500 metres, with a time of 37.90 in Utah Olympic Oval. She failed to improve on her 1000 metre time from last season, however.
The Turin Olympics ended with fifth place for Lee, despite her third-best second run which wasn't enough to lift her up more than one place. Earlier, she had finished 19th on the 1000 metres and 12th in the World Sprint Championships.
The 2007 season has seen further improvement for Lee. She is yet to finish outside the top two, and after three of 12 races she heads the overall standings on the 500 metres. She has also improved on the 1000 metres, and became 11th in the overall standings, with eighth place in Heerenveen as the best result.
At the 2010 Winter Olympics she won the Gold medal in the 500 metres.
Personal bests
| Distance | Time | Venue | Date | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 m | 10.46 | Thialf | 6 March 2005 | World Cup final |
| 500 m | 37.24 | Utah Olympic Oval | 11 December 2009 | World Cup |
| 1000 m | 1:15.26 | Utah Olympic Oval | 13 December 2009 | World Cup |
References
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