Sohn Kee-chung

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Sohn Kee-chung
Hangul:
손기정
Hanja:
孫基禎
Revised Romanization: Son Gi-jeong
McCune-Reischauer: Son Kijŏng
Olympic medal record
Men's athletics
Gold 1936 Berlin Marathon

Sohn Kee-chung (August 29, 1912November 15, 2002) became the first medal-winning Korean Olympian when he won the gold medal in the Marathon at the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a member of the Japanese delegation, under the name of Son Kitei, which is the Japanese pronunciation of the hanja making up his name.

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[edit] Life

Born in Sinŭiju, North P'yŏngan Province, Sohn Kee-chung was educated at Yangjeong High School (양정고등학교) and Meiji University in Japan, from which he graduated in 1940. Between 1933 and 1936, he ran 13 marathons and won 10 of them. He set the World Best time of 2 hours, 26 minutes 42 seconds on 3 November 1935, which endured until 1947. His personal best was even better, 2 hours 25 minutes and 14 seconds for the course 520m longer than the standard one (adjusted to be 2:23:28 over 42.195km), and 2 hours 24 minutes and 51 seconds for a probable short course. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics as a marathon runner who finished 42.195 kilometres in 2-hours, 29-minutes, and 19.2-seconds. He broke the olympic best and received the gold medal, with his Korean teammate Nam Sung-yong finishing third to win the bronze.

[edit] Marathon and media

Bronze helmet donated by Sohn Kee-Jung, National Museum of Korea
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Bronze helmet donated by Sohn Kee-Jung, National Museum of Korea

At the time of the Berlin Olympics in 1936, Korea was occupied by Japan as its de facto colony. Sohn Kee-chung was forced to compete for the Japanese team using the adopted Japanese name of Son Kitei, the Japanese pronunciation of the hanja making up his name. As a nationalist, Sohn Kee-chung refused to sign his name in Japanese and signed only his Korean name, and even sketched the shape of Korea beside his signatures. When interviewers asked him about his country, he would clarify that Korea is his mother country. At the medal ceremony, Sohn was overcome with emotion and shed tears to see the flag of Japan raised and the Japanese national anthem played. Japan was officially credited with Sohn's gold and Nam's bronze in its 1936 Summer Olympics medal count.

One of Korea's domestic newspapers, Dong-a Ilbo, published a photograph of Sohn at the medal ceremony, but had altered the image to remove the Japanese flag from Sohn's uniform. This act so enraged the Japanese regime that it imprisoned eight persons connected with the newspaper and suspended the publication's operations for nine months.

Sohn spent the remainder of his career coaching other notable runners such as:

Eventually, he became the Chairman of the Korean Sporting Association.

At the 1988 Summer Olympics in his home country of South Korea, he was given the honor of carrying the Olympic torch into the stadium at the opening ceremony. He authored an autobiography entitled My Motherland and Marathon (나의조국과 마라톤). He was honoured with the Order of Civil Merit (Hangul:국민훈장)and posthumously, Grand Cordon (Blue Dragon) of the Order of Sporting Merit.

Sohn Kee-chung died at the age of 90 at midnight on November 15, 2002 from pneumonia, and was buried at the Daejeon National Cemetery. Afterwards, the Sohn Kee-jung Memorial Park was established.

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Olympic champions in men's marathon
1896: Spiridon Louis | 1900: Michel Théato | 1904: Thomas J. Hicks | 1906: William Sherring | 1908: Johnny Hayes | 1912: Kenneth McArthur | 1920: Hannes Kolehmainen | 1924: Albin Stenroos | 1928: Boughera El Ouafi | 1932: Juan Carlos Zabala | 1936: Sohn Kee-chung | 1948: Delfo Cabrera | 1952: Emil Zátopek | 1956: Alain Mimoun | 1960: Abebe Bikila | 1964: Abebe Bikila | 1968: Mamo Wolde | 1972: Frank Shorter | 1976: Waldemar Cierpinski | 1980: Waldemar Cierpinski | 1984: Carlos Lopes | 1988: Gelindo Bordin | 1992: Hwang Young-Cho | 1996: Josia Thugwane | 2000: Gezahegne Abera | 2004: Stefano Baldini