Lee Kyu-Hyuk
Encyclopedia
Lee Kyou-Hyuk is a South Korea
n long track speed skater who specializes in the 500 and 1,000 meters. He was the 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011 World Sprint Speed Skating Champion
, and is one of four male skaters to have won the World Sprint Speed Skating Championships
four times.
His first world sprint championship, in 2007, was his first International Championships medal after a 13-year top-level career. As well as his success in the World Sprint Championships, Lee has fourteen wins in individual World Cup
races, a gold medal, two silver and one bronze from the World Single Distance Championships
and four gold medals from the Asian Winter Games
as well as numerous South Korean titles, including 10 successive National Sprint Speed Skating Championships (2001–2010). He has set two world records during his career.
events at age 13, when he competed at the World Junior Championships
in Warsaw
. He did not qualify for the final distance, but his samalog
total ranked him as 21st of 49 competitors and the second best from South Korea. He returned the following year but again failed to qualify, though he improved two places and was the best Korean after Bong Ju-Hyeon got disqualified in the 1,500 meters.
In the 1994 season, Lee was sent to the first four World Cup races of the season as warm-up to the 1994 Winter Olympics
at age 15. His best place came in Davos, where he was 21st of 36 on the 500 meters, but he earned no World Cup points. At the Olympics, Lee finished 36th at the 500 meters and 32nd at the 1,000 meters. At the World Junior Championships in Calgary
, however, Lee qualified for the final distance for the first time and finished fourth overall, 0.098 points behind the bronze medalist.
Lee also finished fourth at the Junior Championships in 1995 and 1996, losing his lead after the opening three distances to long-distance specialists Bob de Jong
and Mark Knoll. Nevertheless, he was selected to represent South Korea at the 1995 World Championships
all round, where he finished fourth on the 500 meters but still failed to qualify for the final distance, ending as 20th. In the 1996 championship, however, he lowered the junior world record in the 500 meters to 36.59 seconds, though Jeremy Wotherspoon
bettered it by 0.01 seconds two weeks later.
His World Cup placings improve little until 1996, when he got his first top ten placing of eighth at a World Cup meet in Medeo
, though he still failed to place in the top 20 overall.
In his fourth international season as junior, Lee finished 21st in the World Allround after winning the 500 meters, and in eight World Cup appearances in 1997, Lee finished in the top ten three times, all on the 1,000 meters. He even made the podium 0.15 seconds behind winner Gerard van Velde
at a race in Jeonju
. This brought him up to 15th place overall in the 1,000 meter World Cup, though he did not skate in World Cup races in Europe or the world junior championships.
In the 1997–98 World Cup, Lee improved to 11th in the 1,000 meters and 16th in the 500 and won a World Cup race in Calgary with a world-record time of 1:10.42, his first world record. Over that weekend, the world record was cut 1.15 seconds. The record stood for a month until Jeremy Wotherspoon
beat it in a domestic Canadian race. Lee missed the final two World Cup meets, before and after the Olympics
, but after four of eight sprint events he was placed fifth in the 1,000 meters World Cup and tenth in the 500 meters World Cup. While still a world record holder, he won silver at the Asian Single Distance Championships in Obihiro, only beaten by fellow Korean Kim Yun-Man. Lee finished 12th at the World Sprint Championships in Berlin two weeks before the Olympics, and registered 8th (2 × 500) and 13th place (1,000) in his two Olympic appearances.
The following season was poor for Lee. He was relegated to the B group in the World Cup following finishes of between 25 and 38 in the opening race in Nagano, and did not figure in the top eight of the B group either. At the Asian Winter Games, he won silver on the 1,000 meters, but that tournament lacked the participation of the best Japanese skaters such as Hiroyasu Shimizu
, Junichi Inoue
and Yukinori Miyabe
, who all beat Lee at the World Cup in Nagano.
Lee bounced back in 2000. In the first World Cup race of the season, Lee won the B group in the first 500-meter race, and finished third in the second 0.19 seconds behind winner Jeremy Wotherspoon
. His B group appearances in the 1,000 meters was also good enough for promotion, and though he got no further podium places, he finished 11th overall in the 500-meter World Cup, his best placing to date. He also qualified for the World Single Distance Championships
for the first time, taking 12th place on the 1,000 meters as his best result, and went below 1:10 for the first time in a World Cup race.
The 2001 season was even more consistent. Lee finished on the podium twice in a World Cup race, in Seoul (1,000) and Calgary (500), and in 20 World Cup starts he never finished out of the top 11 (though he took 11th place five times). He finished fourth in the overall World Cup standings in the 1,000 meters and sixth in the 500 meters, his best records in the overall World Cup. In the major championships, Lee took part in the World Sprint Championships for the first time in three years, finishing ninth just over a samalog point
behind Mike Ireland
.
In March, he rounded off the season with fourth and fifth place at the World Single Distance Championships in the Utah Olympic Oval
. Times were significantly faster this season, and in March Lee registered 34.84 in the 500 meters (in Calgary and Salt Lake City
, which was 0.85 better than his last season's time in Calgary) and 1:08.61 in the 1,000 meters (more than a second better than last season's World Cup final effort).
A week after the World Cup final event, Lee competed in an international race in Calgary, which he won with a new world record time of 1:45.20. The record stood for almost a year until Derek Parra
beat it at the 2002 Winter Olympics
in Salt Lake City.
, but also finished 19th on a 1,000 meter race that weekend. In Heerenveen
in January, however, he won his first World Cup race in four years, sharing the win with Gerard van Velde
, whose last-pair effort was good enough to tie with Lee's time. He also won a B group race during that World Cup event, and finished third on the 1,000 meters behind two Dutchmen. A week later, Lee recorded his best placing at a World Sprint championship, though he finished sixth and further behind the winner than he had been the previous year. His best placing in an individual race was fifth on the first 500 meters.
With those results, Lee went into the Olympics, and started on three distances, 500, 1,000 and 1,500 meters. On the 500, Lee finished the first run in fifth, setting a personal best of 34.74 and finishing 0.13 seconds behind leader Hiroyasu Shimizu
, but could only register the 10th-best time the following day and finished in fifth place. He finished in eighth place on both the 1,000 meters and the 1,500 meters, though on the latter he was within half a second of a medal. Lee finished off the season with three top-ten placings at the World Cup finals in Inzell
, which secured eighth place in the overall 500 metre World Cup.
In 2003, Lee again put in consistent placings between 4 and 11 in the World Cup, except for the 100 metre event in Inzell where he finished 24th. His only showing on the 1500 metres in the World Cup ended with 1:48.78 and fourth place in Heerenveen in March; however, in Berlin
a week later, he finished 24th and last on the distance during the World Single Distance Championships. In January, he had repeated last season's sixth place in the World Sprint Championships, though the distance to winner Wotherspoon grew to 1.8 points, and at the Asian Winter Games in Aomori
, he won gold on both the 1000 and 1500 metre event, pipping Hiroyasu Shimizu
by 0.05 seconds on the 1000 metres.
2004 was another weak season for Lee. In November, he skated trial races in Calgary, and finished with times above 36 seconds on 500 metres and 1:11 on 1000 metres, well behind his personal bests. On the 500 metres he was relegated into the B group of the World Cup, despite skating better times than in the test races (around 35.8 seconds), and at the Sprint World Championships he finished 20th, though he was still the best Korean. The Single Distance Championships was slightly better, with 13th (500) and 15th place (1000), but he was well behind the leaders.
The 2005 season started in a similar vein: he finished 19th during the first 1000 metre World Cup race in Nagano, though he was 11th on the 500 metres. However, the following day, he improved by 1.8 seconds on his first 1000 metre time, and then watched seven pairs of skaters fail to beat his time, though Dutchman Beorn Nijenhuis
in the last pair came within 0.01 seconds of beating it. He could not repeat the performance in the remainder of the season, with two ninth-placings in Calgary as best, and finished 15th in the overall 1000 metre World Cup. He improved to 11th in the World Sprint Championships, but during the World Single Distance Championships he failed to place in the top 20 of 24 skaters on any distance.
, and showed strength by winning a 1000 metre test race in Calgary in 1:08.77, close to his personal best. He later lowered it during the World Cup in Salt Lake City, skating a new personal best of 1:08.16 to finish fifth, and he also came fourth in a race in Turin two months before the Games, 0.14 behind winner Dmitry Dorofeyev
, though in a race without world record holder Shani Davis
. In January, Lee used strong 1000 metre times to finish fourth overall at the World Sprint Championships, despite 13th and 14th places on the 500 metre races, and another fourth place came at the Turin Olympics
. Lee skated in the penultimate pair, and had the bronze when he finished, but Dutchman Erben Wennemars
finished 0.05 ahead to beat the Korean.
The 2007 season
, his 14th in international speed skating, became Lee's best. At the first World Cup meet of the season in Thialf
, Lee won the first 1000 metres and placed second and third in the 500 metre races, and led the 1000 metre World Cup after one weekend. He then won a 500 metre race in Berlin Sportforum
, thus taking the lead in both sprint distance cups before the sprinters travelled to Asia.
In Harbin, China, Lee stretched his run of podium places in 500 and 1000 metre races to 11, and won three of the four races – both 1000 metres, in the absence of World Cup third and Olympic gold medallist Shani Davis
, as well as a 500 metre race tied with Keiichiro Nagashima
. Lee remained in the lead in both sprint World Cups, but after fourth and sixth places in M-Wave
, Nagano, he had to give the 500 metre lead over to Japanese skater Nagashima. Lee was runner-up in both 1000 metre races, though, and led the 1000 metre World Cup by 80 points before the six-week World Cup break.
Lee's next international meet was the 2007 World Sprint Championship
in Vikingskipet, Hamar
, five weeks after the Nagano World Cup meet. NRC Handelsblad
named him as one of the favourites along with Shani Davis
, Pekka Koskela
and Erben Wennemars
. After the first day, Lee trailed Koskela by 0.075 points, having lost 0.31 seconds on the 500 metres. However, Lee lost less on the second day's 500 metre race, and set Koskela the challenge of repeating his time from Saturday to become World Sprint Champion. Koskela arrived 0.13 seconds too late, leaving Lee as the third South Korean world sprint champion, despite not winning a single distance. His placings were fourth, second, third and second.
Lee then travelled to Changchun for the 2007 Winter Asian Games
, missing a coinciding World Cup meet in Heerenveen to fall down to fourth place in the 500 metre standings and second place in the 1000 metre standings. In Changchun he enjoyed success, however, winning the 1000 metres by half a second and the 1500 metres by 0.11 seconds as well as taking silver in the 500 metres. He thus became the most-winning male speed skater at the Games.
The return to competitive speed skating in March, for the World Cup final and the World Single Distance Championships, saw Lee's worst placings on the 500 metres in the whole season, with seventh and tenth place at the World Cup final in Calgary causing him to fall to fifth place. He did set a personal best on the 1000 metres, going under 1:08 for the first time in his career, but finished in fourth place, finishing a tenth of a second too late to beat Erben Wennemars
in the overall World Cup. This placed him ninth on the distance all time list. Lee, however, had three wins in the 2007 World Cup season, compared to Wennemars' one, and had a 9–1 record against Wennemars in top level meets, also including the World Sprint Championships. It should be noted, however, that Shani Davis
, who finished third in the World Cup standings after skipping four of nine meets, also had three wins and beat Lee in four of six races in the season.
Lee finished off the season with two appearances at the World Single Distance Championships
in Utah Olympic Oval
. He bettered his personal bests by nearly 0.3 seconds on the 500 metres and 0.4 on the 1000, but still missed the medal in the 500 metres by 0.01 seconds, finishing fourth after a tie with Tucker Fredricks
was split on the time in the second race. Lee came back to win bronze in the 1000 metre event, again beaten by Davis as well as Denny Morrison
.
Lee continued to be among the top world skaters on the shorter distances in the 2008 season. In the first World Cup race of the season, at the Utah Olympic Oval, Lee skated a new personal best mark with 34.31 seconds, just 0.01 seconds behind the world record before that race, yet was beaten both by compatriot Lee Kang-seok
, who thus took the Korean national record, and Jeremy Wotherspoon
, who had returned after a 365-day absence. Lee then missed out on Sunday's 1000 metre victory by 0.04 seconds, and despite lowering his personal best to 1:07.07, he ended in third place, advancing to fourth on the all time list and a Korean record. Fourth places on the other 500 and 1000 metre events of the weekend resulted in third place on aggregate in both World Cup classifications.
Lee picked up podium spots on the 500 m in Heerenveen and Erfurt, and had three successive third-place appearances on the 1000 m, starting with the race in Calgary. However, in Erfurt he fell on Saturday's 1000 m, and on Sunday he placed sixth, his worst finish in an international 1000 m for three seasons.
In the new year, Lee came back strongly. He became world sprint champion despite trailing Jeremy Wotherspoon by 0.365 points after the first day, by winning both distances on the final day. Lee beat Wotherspoon on the 500 m, his only win over Wotherspoon in twelve races, and then faced off with Wotherspoon in the final pair of the 1000 m, with Lee needing to win by 0.53 seconds. With one lap to go, the two were neck and neck, but Lee came from the last inner lane to win the distance by 0.72 seconds and take the overall title.
Lee only got two further podium appearances in the remainder of the season; a third place in the final meet at Heerenveen on the 500 m secured the fourth place overall, and on 1000 m he ended sixth, falling from a second spot overall before the New Year. Like the rest of the Korean squad, though, he skipped the meet in Inzell. The second podium appearance was at the World Single Distance Championships in Japan, two weeks after the World Cup finals, where he took silver on the 2 × 500 metres, half a second behind Wotherspoon.
Lee enjoyed another season near the world top in 2009, finishing on the podium in 9 of 22 international starts, and winning two 500 m races and one 1000 m race. However, he fell in the final race in the world sprint championships, ruining his chance of third successive world sprint title, and was found in fifth in the World Cup standings on both the shorter distances after missing nearly one-third of the season. At the 500 m in the World Single Distance Championship, Lee beat every race winner from earlier in the season, only to be pipped to the title by Lee Kang-seok
.
The Olympic 2009–10 season began with two podium appearances on the 500 m in the opening races in Berlin, and in the third World Cup meet of the season, Lee won the Saturday race on the 500 metres with a new personal best of 34.28 seconds. He also finished second on the 1000 metres, though well behind both his personal best and the winner Davis. Two more 500 m race wins in the Utah Olympic Oval, shaving another 0.02 seconds off his personal best, propelled him into second in the overall World Cup standings after 8 of 12 races. In January0, Lee was one of the few top skaters who entered the World Sprint Championships in Obihiro, Japan. Lee won both 1000 m races and finished on the podium in the 500 m races, winning the overall title by a margin of nearly one point after four races, the largest margin of victory for eighteen years. He thus became the fourth male skater to win three world sprint titles.
However, Lee was unable to back up his good form in the four pre-Olympic years at the Vancouver Olympics
; 9th place on 1000 m and 15th place on 500 m meant that the veteran had his worst Olympic performance since his 1994 debut. He was one of few disappointments in a strong Korean team
, which topped the medal table in speed skating; team-mate Mo Tae-Bum
, who had skipped the Obihiro championship, won the 500 m gold.
In December 2010, Lee won his 10th consecutive National Sprint Speed Skating Championships. On January 23, 2011, he won his fourth World Sprint Speed Skating Championships, joining Igor Zhelezovski
(six-time World Champion), Eric Heiden
(consecutive four times) and Jeremy Wotherspoon
among men to win four.
|+Personal best speedskating results of Lee Kyou-Hyuk, data from
! Distance !! Time !! Venue !! Date !! Note
|-
|| 500 m || 34.26 || Utah Olympic Oval
|| 11 December 2009 ||
|-
|| 1000 m || 1:07.51|| Utah Olympic Oval
|| 10 March 2007 || World Single Distance Championships
|-
|| 1500 m || 1:45.20 || Olympic Oval
, Calgary
|| 15 March 2001 || Former World record
|-
|| 3000 m || 3:54.30 || Olympic Oval
, Calgary
|| 27 October 2001 ||
|-
|| 5000 m || 7:07.61 || Olympic Oval
, Calgary
|| 10 March 1996 || 1996 World Junior Championships
|-
|| 10,000 m || 15:32.67 || Chichibu Muse-Park, Chichibu
|| 19 December 1992 || Aged 14
|+Speedskating achievements of Lee Kyou-Hyuk, data from
|- align=left bgcolor=#DDDDDD
!year!!Winter Olympics
!!Single Distance WCh
!!Allround WCh
!!Sprint WCh
!!World Cup
|-
|1994||36th 500m
32nd 1000m||||||||
|-
|1995||||||NC20||-||36th 1000m
|-
|1996||||||||||24th 500m
21st 1000m
|-
|1997||||-||NC21||-||29th 500m
15th 1000m
1 third
|-
|1998||8th 500m
13th 1000m||-||-||12th||16th 500m
11th 1000m
1 win
|-
|1999||||-||-||-||49th 500m
49th 1000m
|-
|2000||||15th 500m
12th 1000m||-||-||11th 500m
12th 1000m
1 third
|-
|2001||||5th 500m
4th 1000m||-||9th||6th 500m
4th 1000m
1 second, 1 third
|-
|2002||5th 500m
8th 1000m
8th 1500m||||-||6th||8th 500m
12th 1000m
27th 1500m
1 win, 1 third
|-
|2003||||10th 1000m
24th 1500m||-||6th||8th 500m
14th 1000m
22nd 1500m
|-
|2004||||13th 500m
15th 1000m||-||20th||40th 500m
31st 1000m
|-
|2005||||21st 500m
22nd 1000m||-||11th||16th 500m
15th 1000m
1 win
|-
|2006||4th 1000m
17th 500m||||-||4th||17th 500m
17th 1000m
39th 1500m
|-
|2007|||| 1000m
4th 500m||-|| Gold||5th 500m
2nd 1000m
5 wins, 4 second, 4 third
|-
|2008|||| 500m
6th 1000m||-|| Gold||4th 500m
6th 1000m
1 second, 5 third
|-
|2009|||| 500m
7th 1000m||-||Dsq.||5th 500m
5th 1000m
2 wins, 2 second, 3 third
|-
|2010||15th 500m
9th 1000m
||-|| || Gold ||7th 500m
10th 1000m
3 wins, 3 second, 1 third
|-
|2011|||| 500m
4th 1000m||-|| Gold|| 500m
1000m
1 win, 5 second, 4 third
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
n long track speed skater who specializes in the 500 and 1,000 meters. He was the 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011 World Sprint Speed Skating Champion
World Sprint Speed Skating Championships
The World Sprint Speed Skating Championships are annual speed skating championships. The championships are held over a two day period, with the skaters racing one 500 m and one 1,000 m each day...
, and is one of four male skaters to have won the World Sprint Speed Skating Championships
World Sprint Speed Skating Championships
The World Sprint Speed Skating Championships are annual speed skating championships. The championships are held over a two day period, with the skaters racing one 500 m and one 1,000 m each day...
four times.
His first world sprint championship, in 2007, was his first International Championships medal after a 13-year top-level career. As well as his success in the World Sprint Championships, Lee has fourteen wins in individual World Cup
Speed Skating World Cup
The Speed Skating World Cup is a series of international speed skating competitions, organised yearly by the International Skating Union since the winter of 1985–86. Every year during the winter, a number of competitions on a number of different distances are held...
races, a gold medal, two silver and one bronze from the World Single Distance Championships
World Single Distance Championships
The World Single Distance Championships are a series of speed skating competitions organised by the International Skating Union.-History:Since the late 19th century, speed skating championships were always decided by racing multiple distances – four different distances for the allround...
and four gold medals from the Asian Winter Games
Asian Winter Games
The Asian Winter Games is a multi-sport event held every four years for members of the Olympic Council of Asia which features winter events. The Japanese Olympic Committee first suggested the idea of holding a winter version of the Asian Games in 1982...
as well as numerous South Korean titles, including 10 successive National Sprint Speed Skating Championships (2001–2010). He has set two world records during his career.
Junior
Lee made his debut in ISUInternational Skating Union
The International Skating Union is the international governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded in Scheveningen, Netherlands in 1892, making it one of the oldest international...
events at age 13, when he competed at the World Junior Championships
World Junior Speed Skating Championships
||valign=top width=50%|In 1971, when the ISU had a congress they decided to hold a World Junior Speed Skating Championships. After 2 test-championships , where only boys where allowed to skate, the first official championship was introduced in Cortina d'Ampezzo. In this championship boys and girls...
in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
. He did not qualify for the final distance, but his samalog
Samalog
Samalog is a scoring system in speed skating. It is used in allround tournaments to convert results at various distances into points in order to determine an overall champion...
total ranked him as 21st of 49 competitors and the second best from South Korea. He returned the following year but again failed to qualify, though he improved two places and was the best Korean after Bong Ju-Hyeon got disqualified in the 1,500 meters.
In the 1994 season, Lee was sent to the first four World Cup races of the season as warm-up to the 1994 Winter Olympics
1994 Winter Olympics
The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event celebrated from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Lillehammer failed to win the bid for the 1992 event. Lillehammer was awarded the games in 1988, after having beat...
at age 15. His best place came in Davos, where he was 21st of 36 on the 500 meters, but he earned no World Cup points. At the Olympics, Lee finished 36th at the 500 meters and 32nd at the 1,000 meters. At the World Junior Championships in Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
, however, Lee qualified for the final distance for the first time and finished fourth overall, 0.098 points behind the bronze medalist.
Lee also finished fourth at the Junior Championships in 1995 and 1996, losing his lead after the opening three distances to long-distance specialists Bob de Jong
Bob de Jong
Bob Johannes Carolus de Jong is a Dutch speed skater who specializes in long distances: five and ten kilometers.-Speed skating career:...
and Mark Knoll. Nevertheless, he was selected to represent South Korea at the 1995 World Championships
World Allround Speed Skating Championships
The World Allround Speed Skating Championships are a series of speed skating events held annually to determine the best allround speed skater of the world...
all round, where he finished fourth on the 500 meters but still failed to qualify for the final distance, ending as 20th. In the 1996 championship, however, he lowered the junior world record in the 500 meters to 36.59 seconds, though Jeremy Wotherspoon
Jeremy Wotherspoon
Jeremy Lee Wotherspoon is a Canadian speed skater, widely recognized as one of the greatest speedskating sprinters of all time....
bettered it by 0.01 seconds two weeks later.
His World Cup placings improve little until 1996, when he got his first top ten placing of eighth at a World Cup meet in Medeo
Medeo
The Medeu , or Medeo , is an outdoor speed skating and bandy rink. It is located in a mountain valley on the south-eastern outskirts of Almaty, Kazakhstan. Medeu sits 1,691 metres above sea level, making it the highest skating rink in the world...
, though he still failed to place in the top 20 overall.
In his fourth international season as junior, Lee finished 21st in the World Allround after winning the 500 meters, and in eight World Cup appearances in 1997, Lee finished in the top ten three times, all on the 1,000 meters. He even made the podium 0.15 seconds behind winner Gerard van Velde
Gerard van Velde
Gerard Pieter Hendrik van Velde is a retired Dutch speedskater, and was specialised in sprinting....
at a race in Jeonju
Jeonju
Jeonju is a city in South Korea, and the capital of Jeollabuk-do, or North Jeolla Province. It is an important tourist center famous for Korean food, historic buildings, sports activities and innovative festivals.- History :...
. This brought him up to 15th place overall in the 1,000 meter World Cup, though he did not skate in World Cup races in Europe or the world junior championships.
1998 to 2001
Over this period of his career, Lee was an out-and-out sprinter who only participated in the 500 and 1,000 meter races. Though he set a world record in the 1,500 meters, he never competed in World Cup races in that distance until 2002.In the 1997–98 World Cup, Lee improved to 11th in the 1,000 meters and 16th in the 500 and won a World Cup race in Calgary with a world-record time of 1:10.42, his first world record. Over that weekend, the world record was cut 1.15 seconds. The record stood for a month until Jeremy Wotherspoon
Jeremy Wotherspoon
Jeremy Lee Wotherspoon is a Canadian speed skater, widely recognized as one of the greatest speedskating sprinters of all time....
beat it in a domestic Canadian race. Lee missed the final two World Cup meets, before and after the Olympics
1998 Winter Olympics
The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially the XVIII Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event celebrated from 7 to 22 February 1998 in Nagano, Japan. Seventy-two nations and 2,176 participans contested in seven sports and 72 events at 15 venues. The games saw the introduction of Women's ice...
, but after four of eight sprint events he was placed fifth in the 1,000 meters World Cup and tenth in the 500 meters World Cup. While still a world record holder, he won silver at the Asian Single Distance Championships in Obihiro, only beaten by fellow Korean Kim Yun-Man. Lee finished 12th at the World Sprint Championships in Berlin two weeks before the Olympics, and registered 8th (2 × 500) and 13th place (1,000) in his two Olympic appearances.
The following season was poor for Lee. He was relegated to the B group in the World Cup following finishes of between 25 and 38 in the opening race in Nagano, and did not figure in the top eight of the B group either. At the Asian Winter Games, he won silver on the 1,000 meters, but that tournament lacked the participation of the best Japanese skaters such as Hiroyasu Shimizu
Hiroyasu Shimizu
Hiroyasu Shimizu is a Japanese speed skater. He has an Olympic Gold medal from 1998 in the 500m and his win made him a hero in his home country. He currently holds the world record for the 100m speed skating event in 9.43 seconds...
, Junichi Inoue
Junichi Inoue
is a Japanese speed skater who competed in the 1992 Winter Olympics and in the 1994 Winter Olympics.He was born in Arakawa, Saitama.In 1992 he won the bronze medal in the 500 metres event....
and Yukinori Miyabe
Yukinori Miyabe
is a Japanese speed skater who competed in the 1992 Winter Olympics and in the 1994 Winter Olympics.He is the younger brother of Yasunori Miyabe.In 1992 he won the bronze medal in the 1000 metres event...
, who all beat Lee at the World Cup in Nagano.
Lee bounced back in 2000. In the first World Cup race of the season, Lee won the B group in the first 500-meter race, and finished third in the second 0.19 seconds behind winner Jeremy Wotherspoon
Jeremy Wotherspoon
Jeremy Lee Wotherspoon is a Canadian speed skater, widely recognized as one of the greatest speedskating sprinters of all time....
. His B group appearances in the 1,000 meters was also good enough for promotion, and though he got no further podium places, he finished 11th overall in the 500-meter World Cup, his best placing to date. He also qualified for the World Single Distance Championships
World Single Distance Championships
The World Single Distance Championships are a series of speed skating competitions organised by the International Skating Union.-History:Since the late 19th century, speed skating championships were always decided by racing multiple distances – four different distances for the allround...
for the first time, taking 12th place on the 1,000 meters as his best result, and went below 1:10 for the first time in a World Cup race.
The 2001 season was even more consistent. Lee finished on the podium twice in a World Cup race, in Seoul (1,000) and Calgary (500), and in 20 World Cup starts he never finished out of the top 11 (though he took 11th place five times). He finished fourth in the overall World Cup standings in the 1,000 meters and sixth in the 500 meters, his best records in the overall World Cup. In the major championships, Lee took part in the World Sprint Championships for the first time in three years, finishing ninth just over a samalog point
Samalog
Samalog is a scoring system in speed skating. It is used in allround tournaments to convert results at various distances into points in order to determine an overall champion...
behind Mike Ireland
Mike Ireland
Michael Ireland is a long track speed skater.Mike Ireland specialises in the sprint distances...
.
In March, he rounded off the season with fourth and fifth place at the World Single Distance Championships in the Utah Olympic Oval
Utah Olympic Oval
The Utah Olympic Oval, an indoor speed skating oval built for the 2002 Winter Olympics, is located southwest of Salt Lake City, in Kearns, Utah. The Oval hosted the long track speed skating events for the 2002 games. Inside the facility the 400-meter skating track surrounds two international sized...
. Times were significantly faster this season, and in March Lee registered 34.84 in the 500 meters (in Calgary and Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
, which was 0.85 better than his last season's time in Calgary) and 1:08.61 in the 1,000 meters (more than a second better than last season's World Cup final effort).
A week after the World Cup final event, Lee competed in an international race in Calgary, which he won with a new world record time of 1:45.20. The record stood for almost a year until Derek Parra
Derek Parra
Derek Parra is a Mexican-American speed skater from San Bernardino, California, who graduated from Eisenhower High School in 1988. Parra won two medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics, held in Salt Lake City, Utah....
beat it at the 2002 Winter Olympics
2002 Winter Olympics
The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event that was celebrated in February 2002 in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Approximately 2,400 athletes from 77 nations participated in 78 events in fifteen disciplines, held throughout...
in Salt Lake City.
2002 to 2005
Lee began the Olympic season with fifth place during a 500 meter race in the Utah Olympic OvalUtah Olympic Oval
The Utah Olympic Oval, an indoor speed skating oval built for the 2002 Winter Olympics, is located southwest of Salt Lake City, in Kearns, Utah. The Oval hosted the long track speed skating events for the 2002 games. Inside the facility the 400-meter skating track surrounds two international sized...
, but also finished 19th on a 1,000 meter race that weekend. In Heerenveen
Heerenveen
Heerenveen is a town in the Heerenveen municipality of the province of Friesland , in the north of the Netherlands.- History :The town was established in 1551 by three lords as a location for the purpose of digging peat which was used for fuel, hence the name...
in January, however, he won his first World Cup race in four years, sharing the win with Gerard van Velde
Gerard van Velde
Gerard Pieter Hendrik van Velde is a retired Dutch speedskater, and was specialised in sprinting....
, whose last-pair effort was good enough to tie with Lee's time. He also won a B group race during that World Cup event, and finished third on the 1,000 meters behind two Dutchmen. A week later, Lee recorded his best placing at a World Sprint championship, though he finished sixth and further behind the winner than he had been the previous year. His best placing in an individual race was fifth on the first 500 meters.
With those results, Lee went into the Olympics, and started on three distances, 500, 1,000 and 1,500 meters. On the 500, Lee finished the first run in fifth, setting a personal best of 34.74 and finishing 0.13 seconds behind leader Hiroyasu Shimizu
Hiroyasu Shimizu
Hiroyasu Shimizu is a Japanese speed skater. He has an Olympic Gold medal from 1998 in the 500m and his win made him a hero in his home country. He currently holds the world record for the 100m speed skating event in 9.43 seconds...
, but could only register the 10th-best time the following day and finished in fifth place. He finished in eighth place on both the 1,000 meters and the 1,500 meters, though on the latter he was within half a second of a medal. Lee finished off the season with three top-ten placings at the World Cup finals in Inzell
Inzell
Inzell is a municipality in the district of Traunstein in Bavaria, Germany. It is known for the Eisstadion Inzell, an outdoor artificial ice rink that has been used for many international speed skating championships....
, which secured eighth place in the overall 500 metre World Cup.
In 2003, Lee again put in consistent placings between 4 and 11 in the World Cup, except for the 100 metre event in Inzell where he finished 24th. His only showing on the 1500 metres in the World Cup ended with 1:48.78 and fourth place in Heerenveen in March; however, in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
a week later, he finished 24th and last on the distance during the World Single Distance Championships. In January, he had repeated last season's sixth place in the World Sprint Championships, though the distance to winner Wotherspoon grew to 1.8 points, and at the Asian Winter Games in Aomori
Aomori, Aomori
is the capital city of Aomori Prefecture, in the northern Tōhoku region of Japan. As of 2009, the city had an estimated population of 302,068 and a density of 366 persons per km². Its total area was 824.52 km².- History :...
, he won gold on both the 1000 and 1500 metre event, pipping Hiroyasu Shimizu
Hiroyasu Shimizu
Hiroyasu Shimizu is a Japanese speed skater. He has an Olympic Gold medal from 1998 in the 500m and his win made him a hero in his home country. He currently holds the world record for the 100m speed skating event in 9.43 seconds...
by 0.05 seconds on the 1000 metres.
2004 was another weak season for Lee. In November, he skated trial races in Calgary, and finished with times above 36 seconds on 500 metres and 1:11 on 1000 metres, well behind his personal bests. On the 500 metres he was relegated into the B group of the World Cup, despite skating better times than in the test races (around 35.8 seconds), and at the Sprint World Championships he finished 20th, though he was still the best Korean. The Single Distance Championships was slightly better, with 13th (500) and 15th place (1000), but he was well behind the leaders.
The 2005 season started in a similar vein: he finished 19th during the first 1000 metre World Cup race in Nagano, though he was 11th on the 500 metres. However, the following day, he improved by 1.8 seconds on his first 1000 metre time, and then watched seven pairs of skaters fail to beat his time, though Dutchman Beorn Nijenhuis
Beorn Nijenhuis
Beorn Enriqué Nijenhuis is a Dutch speed skater, who represented the Netherlands at the 2006 Winter Olympics....
in the last pair came within 0.01 seconds of beating it. He could not repeat the performance in the remainder of the season, with two ninth-placings in Calgary as best, and finished 15th in the overall 1000 metre World Cup. He improved to 11th in the World Sprint Championships, but during the World Single Distance Championships he failed to place in the top 20 of 24 skaters on any distance.
2006 and beyond
Lee took part in his fourth Olympic Games in TurinTurin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, and showed strength by winning a 1000 metre test race in Calgary in 1:08.77, close to his personal best. He later lowered it during the World Cup in Salt Lake City, skating a new personal best of 1:08.16 to finish fifth, and he also came fourth in a race in Turin two months before the Games, 0.14 behind winner Dmitry Dorofeyev
Dmitry Dorofeyev
Dmitry Anatolyevich Dorofeyev is a speed skater. Dmitry Dorofeyev won a silver medal in the 500 m at the 2006 Winter Olympics. His second place finish was Russia's first Olympic speed skating medal since 1994. He placed tenth in the 1,000 m event...
, though in a race without world record holder Shani Davis
Shani Davis
Shani Davis is an Olympic Champion speed skater from the United States.At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Davis became the first Black athlete to win a gold medal in an individual sport at the Olympic Winter Games . He also won the silver in the 1,500 m...
. In January, Lee used strong 1000 metre times to finish fourth overall at the World Sprint Championships, despite 13th and 14th places on the 500 metre races, and another fourth place came at the Turin Olympics
2006 Winter Olympics
The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XX Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Turin, Italy from February 10, 2006, through February 26, 2006. This marked the second time Italy hosted the Olympic Winter Games, the first being the VII Olympic Winter...
. Lee skated in the penultimate pair, and had the bronze when he finished, but Dutchman Erben Wennemars
Erben Wennemars
Egbert Rolf Wennemars is a Dutch former speed skater. He specialized in the sprint and middle distances of 500, 1000 and 1500 meters.-Speed skating career:...
finished 0.05 ahead to beat the Korean.
The 2007 season
2007 in speed skating
The year 2007 in speed skating also includes events in the autumn of 2006, since they belong to the same long track speed skating season.-Chronology:...
, his 14th in international speed skating, became Lee's best. At the first World Cup meet of the season in Thialf
Thialf
Thialf is an ice arena in Heerenveen, Netherlands. The stadium is used for long track speed skating, short track speed skating, ice hockey, figure skating, and non-sports events. The outdoor rink was opened in 1967, and the indoor stadium was opened in 1986. Several world records were set in the...
, Lee won the first 1000 metres and placed second and third in the 500 metre races, and led the 1000 metre World Cup after one weekend. He then won a 500 metre race in Berlin Sportforum
Sportforum Hohenschönhausen
Sportforum Hohenschönhausen is a multi-use sports complex in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen, Germany that includes facilities for speed skating, athletics, cycling, and other sports.-Ice sports arena:...
, thus taking the lead in both sprint distance cups before the sprinters travelled to Asia.
In Harbin, China, Lee stretched his run of podium places in 500 and 1000 metre races to 11, and won three of the four races – both 1000 metres, in the absence of World Cup third and Olympic gold medallist Shani Davis
Shani Davis
Shani Davis is an Olympic Champion speed skater from the United States.At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Davis became the first Black athlete to win a gold medal in an individual sport at the Olympic Winter Games . He also won the silver in the 1,500 m...
, as well as a 500 metre race tied with Keiichiro Nagashima
Keiichiro Nagashima
Keiichiro Nagashima is a Japanese long track speed skater specialising in the sprint distances 500 and 1000 metres...
. Lee remained in the lead in both sprint World Cups, but after fourth and sixth places in M-Wave
M-Wave
is an indoor sporting arena located in Nagano, Japan.Opened in 1996, the arena has a capacity of 10,000. It hosted the speed skating events of the 1998 Winter Olympics. The M-Wave is equipped with movable stands and an automatically winding artificial lawn machine...
, Nagano, he had to give the 500 metre lead over to Japanese skater Nagashima. Lee was runner-up in both 1000 metre races, though, and led the 1000 metre World Cup by 80 points before the six-week World Cup break.
Lee's next international meet was the 2007 World Sprint Championship
2007 World Sprint Speed Skating Championships
The 2007 World Sprint Speed Skating Championships were held in Vikingskipet, Hamar on 20 January and 21 January 2007. They were the 36th World Championships, and it was the third time the Championships were held in Hamar...
in Vikingskipet, Hamar
Hamar
is a town and municipality in Hedmark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Hedmarken. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Hamar. The municipality of Hamar was separated from Vang as a town and municipality of its own in 1849...
, five weeks after the Nagano World Cup meet. NRC Handelsblad
NRC Handelsblad
NRC Handelsblad, often abbreviated to NRC, is a daily evening newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. The newspaper was created on October 1, 1970, from merger of the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant and Algemeen Handelsblad . In 2006 a morning newspaper, nrc•next, was launched...
named him as one of the favourites along with Shani Davis
Shani Davis
Shani Davis is an Olympic Champion speed skater from the United States.At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Davis became the first Black athlete to win a gold medal in an individual sport at the Olympic Winter Games . He also won the silver in the 1,500 m...
, Pekka Koskela
Pekka Koskela
Pekka Koskela is a Finnish speedskater, specialising on the sprint distances 500-m and 1000-m. He is the former world record holder on the 1000-m with the time 1.07.00. In December 2001 he set a junior world record on the 500-m with the time 35.89...
and Erben Wennemars
Erben Wennemars
Egbert Rolf Wennemars is a Dutch former speed skater. He specialized in the sprint and middle distances of 500, 1000 and 1500 meters.-Speed skating career:...
. After the first day, Lee trailed Koskela by 0.075 points, having lost 0.31 seconds on the 500 metres. However, Lee lost less on the second day's 500 metre race, and set Koskela the challenge of repeating his time from Saturday to become World Sprint Champion. Koskela arrived 0.13 seconds too late, leaving Lee as the third South Korean world sprint champion, despite not winning a single distance. His placings were fourth, second, third and second.
Lee then travelled to Changchun for the 2007 Winter Asian Games
2007 Winter Asian Games
The 6th Asian Winter Games were held in Changchun, People's Republic of China from January 28 to February 4, 2007. The Winter Games are a smaller version of the Winter Olympics, a celebration of Winter sports in Asia. This is the second time that China hosted the Winter Asiad; the first was in...
, missing a coinciding World Cup meet in Heerenveen to fall down to fourth place in the 500 metre standings and second place in the 1000 metre standings. In Changchun he enjoyed success, however, winning the 1000 metres by half a second and the 1500 metres by 0.11 seconds as well as taking silver in the 500 metres. He thus became the most-winning male speed skater at the Games.
The return to competitive speed skating in March, for the World Cup final and the World Single Distance Championships, saw Lee's worst placings on the 500 metres in the whole season, with seventh and tenth place at the World Cup final in Calgary causing him to fall to fifth place. He did set a personal best on the 1000 metres, going under 1:08 for the first time in his career, but finished in fourth place, finishing a tenth of a second too late to beat Erben Wennemars
Erben Wennemars
Egbert Rolf Wennemars is a Dutch former speed skater. He specialized in the sprint and middle distances of 500, 1000 and 1500 meters.-Speed skating career:...
in the overall World Cup. This placed him ninth on the distance all time list. Lee, however, had three wins in the 2007 World Cup season, compared to Wennemars' one, and had a 9–1 record against Wennemars in top level meets, also including the World Sprint Championships. It should be noted, however, that Shani Davis
Shani Davis
Shani Davis is an Olympic Champion speed skater from the United States.At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Davis became the first Black athlete to win a gold medal in an individual sport at the Olympic Winter Games . He also won the silver in the 1,500 m...
, who finished third in the World Cup standings after skipping four of nine meets, also had three wins and beat Lee in four of six races in the season.
Lee finished off the season with two appearances at the World Single Distance Championships
World Single Distance Championships
The World Single Distance Championships are a series of speed skating competitions organised by the International Skating Union.-History:Since the late 19th century, speed skating championships were always decided by racing multiple distances – four different distances for the allround...
in Utah Olympic Oval
Utah Olympic Oval
The Utah Olympic Oval, an indoor speed skating oval built for the 2002 Winter Olympics, is located southwest of Salt Lake City, in Kearns, Utah. The Oval hosted the long track speed skating events for the 2002 games. Inside the facility the 400-meter skating track surrounds two international sized...
. He bettered his personal bests by nearly 0.3 seconds on the 500 metres and 0.4 on the 1000, but still missed the medal in the 500 metres by 0.01 seconds, finishing fourth after a tie with Tucker Fredricks
Tucker Fredricks
Tucker Fredricks is an American speed skater who competed at the 2006 Winter Olympics.Tucker is a 2002 graduate of Joseph A. Craig High School in Janesville. He began skating in 1994 when a friend of his father's took him skating in lieu of playing hockey...
was split on the time in the second race. Lee came back to win bronze in the 1000 metre event, again beaten by Davis as well as Denny Morrison
Denny Morrison
Denny Morrison is a Canadian speedskater from Fort St. John, British Columbia. His best distance, so far in his career, is the 1500-m, where he held the world record time of 1:42.01 from 14 March 2008 to 6 March 2009...
.
Lee continued to be among the top world skaters on the shorter distances in the 2008 season. In the first World Cup race of the season, at the Utah Olympic Oval, Lee skated a new personal best mark with 34.31 seconds, just 0.01 seconds behind the world record before that race, yet was beaten both by compatriot Lee Kang-seok
Lee Kang-Seok
Lee Kang-Seok is a speed skater from South Korea. He is the 2007 and 2009 World Champion for 500m. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, he won a bronze medal in the 500 m...
, who thus took the Korean national record, and Jeremy Wotherspoon
Jeremy Wotherspoon
Jeremy Lee Wotherspoon is a Canadian speed skater, widely recognized as one of the greatest speedskating sprinters of all time....
, who had returned after a 365-day absence. Lee then missed out on Sunday's 1000 metre victory by 0.04 seconds, and despite lowering his personal best to 1:07.07, he ended in third place, advancing to fourth on the all time list and a Korean record. Fourth places on the other 500 and 1000 metre events of the weekend resulted in third place on aggregate in both World Cup classifications.
Lee picked up podium spots on the 500 m in Heerenveen and Erfurt, and had three successive third-place appearances on the 1000 m, starting with the race in Calgary. However, in Erfurt he fell on Saturday's 1000 m, and on Sunday he placed sixth, his worst finish in an international 1000 m for three seasons.
In the new year, Lee came back strongly. He became world sprint champion despite trailing Jeremy Wotherspoon by 0.365 points after the first day, by winning both distances on the final day. Lee beat Wotherspoon on the 500 m, his only win over Wotherspoon in twelve races, and then faced off with Wotherspoon in the final pair of the 1000 m, with Lee needing to win by 0.53 seconds. With one lap to go, the two were neck and neck, but Lee came from the last inner lane to win the distance by 0.72 seconds and take the overall title.
Lee only got two further podium appearances in the remainder of the season; a third place in the final meet at Heerenveen on the 500 m secured the fourth place overall, and on 1000 m he ended sixth, falling from a second spot overall before the New Year. Like the rest of the Korean squad, though, he skipped the meet in Inzell. The second podium appearance was at the World Single Distance Championships in Japan, two weeks after the World Cup finals, where he took silver on the 2 × 500 metres, half a second behind Wotherspoon.
Lee enjoyed another season near the world top in 2009, finishing on the podium in 9 of 22 international starts, and winning two 500 m races and one 1000 m race. However, he fell in the final race in the world sprint championships, ruining his chance of third successive world sprint title, and was found in fifth in the World Cup standings on both the shorter distances after missing nearly one-third of the season. At the 500 m in the World Single Distance Championship, Lee beat every race winner from earlier in the season, only to be pipped to the title by Lee Kang-seok
Lee Kang-Seok
Lee Kang-Seok is a speed skater from South Korea. He is the 2007 and 2009 World Champion for 500m. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, he won a bronze medal in the 500 m...
.
The Olympic 2009–10 season began with two podium appearances on the 500 m in the opening races in Berlin, and in the third World Cup meet of the season, Lee won the Saturday race on the 500 metres with a new personal best of 34.28 seconds. He also finished second on the 1000 metres, though well behind both his personal best and the winner Davis. Two more 500 m race wins in the Utah Olympic Oval, shaving another 0.02 seconds off his personal best, propelled him into second in the overall World Cup standings after 8 of 12 races. In January0, Lee was one of the few top skaters who entered the World Sprint Championships in Obihiro, Japan. Lee won both 1000 m races and finished on the podium in the 500 m races, winning the overall title by a margin of nearly one point after four races, the largest margin of victory for eighteen years. He thus became the fourth male skater to win three world sprint titles.
However, Lee was unable to back up his good form in the four pre-Olympic years at the Vancouver Olympics
2010 Winter Olympics
The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, were a major international multi-sport event held from February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University...
; 9th place on 1000 m and 15th place on 500 m meant that the veteran had his worst Olympic performance since his 1994 debut. He was one of few disappointments in a strong Korean team
South Korea at the 2010 Winter Olympics
South Korea participated as the Republic of Korea at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This was their best performance at the Winter Olympics to date, ranking 5th on the medal table...
, which topped the medal table in speed skating; team-mate Mo Tae-Bum
Mo Tae-Bum
Mo Tae-Bum is a South Korean speed skater. He started speedskating while in the third grade. Prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics, Mo won two distances at the 2006 World Junior Speed Skating Championships...
, who had skipped the Obihiro championship, won the 500 m gold.
In December 2010, Lee won his 10th consecutive National Sprint Speed Skating Championships. On January 23, 2011, he won his fourth World Sprint Speed Skating Championships, joining Igor Zhelezovski
Igor Zhelezovski
Igor Nikolayevich Zhelezovski is a former speed skater, considered to be one of the best sprinters ever, which resulted in his nickname "Igor the Terrible"...
(six-time World Champion), Eric Heiden
Eric Heiden
Eric Arthur Heiden, M.D. is an American former long track speed skater and road cyclist who won all the men's speed skating races, and thus an unprecedented five individual gold medals, and set four Olympic records and one world record at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York,...
(consecutive four times) and Jeremy Wotherspoon
Jeremy Wotherspoon
Jeremy Lee Wotherspoon is a Canadian speed skater, widely recognized as one of the greatest speedskating sprinters of all time....
among men to win four.
Personal bests
{| class=wikitable|+Personal best speedskating results of Lee Kyou-Hyuk, data from
! Distance !! Time !! Venue !! Date !! Note
|-
|| 500 m || 34.26 || Utah Olympic Oval
Utah Olympic Oval
The Utah Olympic Oval, an indoor speed skating oval built for the 2002 Winter Olympics, is located southwest of Salt Lake City, in Kearns, Utah. The Oval hosted the long track speed skating events for the 2002 games. Inside the facility the 400-meter skating track surrounds two international sized...
|| 11 December 2009 ||
|-
|| 1000 m || 1:07.51|| Utah Olympic Oval
Utah Olympic Oval
The Utah Olympic Oval, an indoor speed skating oval built for the 2002 Winter Olympics, is located southwest of Salt Lake City, in Kearns, Utah. The Oval hosted the long track speed skating events for the 2002 games. Inside the facility the 400-meter skating track surrounds two international sized...
|| 10 March 2007 || World Single Distance Championships
|-
|| 1500 m || 1:45.20 || Olympic Oval
Olympic Oval
The Olympic Oval in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is a covered speed skating oval built for the 1988 Winter Olympics. It is the official designated training center for Speed Skate Canada and the Canadian National Speed Skating team. It is located on the University of Calgary campus...
, Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
|| 15 March 2001 || Former World record
|-
|| 3000 m || 3:54.30 || Olympic Oval
Olympic Oval
The Olympic Oval in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is a covered speed skating oval built for the 1988 Winter Olympics. It is the official designated training center for Speed Skate Canada and the Canadian National Speed Skating team. It is located on the University of Calgary campus...
, Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
|| 27 October 2001 ||
|-
|| 5000 m || 7:07.61 || Olympic Oval
Olympic Oval
The Olympic Oval in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is a covered speed skating oval built for the 1988 Winter Olympics. It is the official designated training center for Speed Skate Canada and the Canadian National Speed Skating team. It is located on the University of Calgary campus...
, Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
|| 10 March 1996 || 1996 World Junior Championships
|-
|| 10,000 m || 15:32.67 || Chichibu Muse-Park, Chichibu
Chichibu
can refer to:*Chichibu, Saitama - a city in Saitama Prefecture, Japan*Prince Chichibu - a member of the Japanese imperial family...
|| 19 December 1992 || Aged 14
Achievements overview
{| class="wikitable"|+Speedskating achievements of Lee Kyou-Hyuk, data from
|- align=left bgcolor=#DDDDDD
!year!!Winter Olympics
Speed skating at the Winter Olympics
Speed skating has been featured as a sport in the Winter Olympics since the first winter games in 1924. Women's events were added to the Olympic program for the first time in 1960.-History:...
!!Single Distance WCh
World Single Distance Championships
The World Single Distance Championships are a series of speed skating competitions organised by the International Skating Union.-History:Since the late 19th century, speed skating championships were always decided by racing multiple distances – four different distances for the allround...
!!Allround WCh
World Allround Speed Skating Championships
The World Allround Speed Skating Championships are a series of speed skating events held annually to determine the best allround speed skater of the world...
!!Sprint WCh
World Sprint Speed Skating Championships
The World Sprint Speed Skating Championships are annual speed skating championships. The championships are held over a two day period, with the skaters racing one 500 m and one 1,000 m each day...
!!World Cup
Speed Skating World Cup
The Speed Skating World Cup is a series of international speed skating competitions, organised yearly by the International Skating Union since the winter of 1985–86. Every year during the winter, a number of competitions on a number of different distances are held...
|-
|1994||36th 500m
32nd 1000m||||||||
|-
|1995||||||NC20||-||36th 1000m
|-
|1996||||||||||24th 500m
21st 1000m
|-
|1997||||-||NC21||-||29th 500m
15th 1000m
1 third
|-
|1998||8th 500m
13th 1000m||-||-||12th||16th 500m
11th 1000m
1 win
|-
|1999||||-||-||-||49th 500m
49th 1000m
|-
|2000||||15th 500m
12th 1000m||-||-||11th 500m
12th 1000m
1 third
|-
|2001||||5th 500m
4th 1000m||-||9th||6th 500m
4th 1000m
1 second, 1 third
|-
|2002||5th 500m
8th 1000m
8th 1500m||||-||6th||8th 500m
12th 1000m
27th 1500m
1 win, 1 third
|-
|2003||||10th 1000m
24th 1500m||-||6th||8th 500m
14th 1000m
22nd 1500m
|-
|2004||||13th 500m
15th 1000m||-||20th||40th 500m
31st 1000m
|-
|2005||||21st 500m
22nd 1000m||-||11th||16th 500m
15th 1000m
1 win
|-
|2006||4th 1000m
17th 500m||||-||4th||17th 500m
17th 1000m
39th 1500m
|-
|2007|||| 1000m
4th 500m||-|| Gold||5th 500m
2nd 1000m
5 wins, 4 second, 4 third
|-
|2008|||| 500m
6th 1000m||-|| Gold||4th 500m
6th 1000m
1 second, 5 third
|-
|2009|||| 500m
7th 1000m||-||Dsq.||5th 500m
5th 1000m
2 wins, 2 second, 3 third
|-
|2010||15th 500m
Speed skating at the 2010 Winter Olympics – Men's 500 metres
The men's 500 metres speed skating competition of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics was held at Richmond Olympic Oval on 15th February 2010.-Track maintenance issues:...
9th 1000m
Speed skating at the 2010 Winter Olympics – Men's 1000 metres
The men's 1000 metres speed skating competition of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics was held at Richmond Olympic Oval on February 17, 2010.-Records:Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows....
||-|| || Gold ||7th 500m
10th 1000m
3 wins, 3 second, 1 third
|-
|2011|||| 500m
4th 1000m||-|| Gold|| 500m
1000m
1 win, 5 second, 4 third
- - = did not take part
- NC# = not qualified for the final distance
External links
- Player profile at Yahoo Sports
- Player profile at NBC Olympics SpeedSkatingNews.info: Athleten vorgestellt, retrieved 4 May 2010
- Jakub Majerski's Speed Skating Database, retrieved 17 March 2008 http://minihp.cyworld.com/pims/main/pims_main.asp?tid=23518201Lee Kyou-Hyuk's CyworldCyworldCyworld is a South Korean social network service operated by SK Communications , a subsidiary of SK Telecom .Members cultivate relationships by forming Ilchon or "friendships" with each other through their minihompy....
Minihompage]