Lee Jung-su

This is a Korean name; the family name is Lee.
For the footballer, see Lee Jung-soo.
Lee Jung-su
Personal information
Born (1989-11-30) November 30, 1989
Seoul, South Korea
Height 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Weight 60 kg (130 lb; 9.4 st)
Sport
Country  South Korea
Sport Short track speed skating
Medal record
Men's short track speed skating
Competitor for  South Korea
Olympic Games
2010 Vancouver 1000 m
2010 Vancouver 1500 m
2010 Vancouver 5000 m relay
World Championships
2010 Sofia 5000 m relay
2012 Shanghai 5000 m relay
World Team Championships
2010 Bormio Team
2009 Heerenveen Team
World Junior Championships
2006 Miercurea-Ciuc Overall
2007 Mladá Boleslav Overall
2008 Bolzano Overall
Korean name
Hangul 이정수
Hanja 李政洙
Revised Romanization I Jeong-su
McCune–Reischauer I Chŏngsu

Lee Jung-su (Hangul: 이정수; born November 30, 1989) is a South Korean short track speed skater. He is a two-time Olympic Champion from 2010 Winter Olympics.

Lee won one distances and became second overall at the 2008 World Junior Championships in Bolzano. He won 2009-2010 Overall World Cup. At the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Lee won two gold medal in the 1000m and 1500m events.[1]

Early life and education

Lee was born in 1989 as the 25th generation of the Injegong branch in the Hansan Lee clan.[2] Lee's father, Lee Do-won is a department manager at the Kyunghyang Sinmun newspaper. Lee's family members are devoted Buddhists.[3] Lee started skating as a hobby in 2002 when he was in fourth grade at Seongok Elementary School. The school in the neighborhood of Wolgye-dong, Nowon-gu, Seoul is located next to the ice rink at Kwangwoon University. Lee's older sister, Lee Hwa-yeong was a figure skater regarded as a rising rookie, who won an elementary competition at the Korean National Sports Festival when she was in 6th grade.[4] During the time, Lee's coach recommended Lee to be a professional skater. As Lee's school established a skating team, Lee joined it. Two years later, He switched from long track speed skating to short track speed skating.[5]

On the other hand, Lee's parents had financial difficulties in supporting their children's dream. They had to spend over 2,000,000 won (approximately US$1,736) per month for the fees of skating lessons, purchasing skating tools and renting exercising locations. Although Lee's parents worked together, spent all savings and even sold paddy fields in a countryside to support their children, that was not enough to cover all. They finally had to loan mortgages on their house where the family was living.[4] However, Lee's sister eventually gave up due to the financial situation and tried to seek her future in other sport genres that cost less money for training such as inline skating and wakeboarding. The fact that his sister had to drop her dream has stimulated Lee Jung-Su to focus on the skating training.[6]

Lee graduated from Gwangmun High School, and is, as of 2010, attending Dankook University.[5]

Lee has been handed a 3-year ban along with his team mate Kwak Yoon-Gy for controversial foulplay. Lee had written a note stating that he was not fit to compete in the World Championships 2010 Sofia, because of an injury. This turned out to be not true, and Lee admitted that his coach forced him to pull out so that he could give team mate Kwak Yoon-Gy a chance to win a medal. Kwak Yoon-Gy went on to win Gold in the 1500m.[7]

Career highlights

ISU World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships
2008 – Bolzano, 2nd 2nd overall classification
1st at 500m
Winter Olympic Games
2010 – Vancouver, 1st Gold at 1000m and 1500m

See also

References

External links

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