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| Korean alpine snowboarder Lee Sang-ho competes in the men's parallel giant slalom event of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics at Phoenix Snow Park in PyeongChang, Saturday. He won the silver medal. / Yonhap |
By Baek Byung-yeul
Korean alpine snowboarder Lee Sang-ho made snowboarding history after winning the silver medal in the men's parallel giant slalom at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Saturday.
At the Phoenix Snow Park in PyeongChang, the 22-year-old lost to Nevin Galmarini of Switzerland by 0.43 seconds in the men's parallel giant slalom. Winning the silver medal he became the first Asian man to win an Olympic medal in alpine snowboard.
The parallel giant slalom is a race between two competitors who start their race at the same time but on parallel courses. The winner is the one who crosses the finish line first.
Lee qualified for the knockout stage of the top 16 contestants after finishing third in the qualifying round of 32 snowboarders with a combined time of one minute and 25.06 seconds.
In the round of 16, Lee won against Russian athlete Dmitry Sarsembaev by 0.54 seconds and beat out Benjamin Karl of Austria in the quarterfinals by 0.94 seconds.
Lee also defeated Zan Kosir of Slovenia, the bronze medalist in this event at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, in the semifinals by only 0.01 second. Lee then advanced to the final against Galmarini who won the silver at the Sochi Olympics.
Two more Korean snowboarders competed in the event. Kim Sang-kyum was eliminated from the round of 16 by Kosir while Choi Bo-gun failed to make the cut.
Kosir took the bronze again after winning over Sylvain Dufour of France in their medal run.
Born in Jeongseon, where the Olympic alpine skiing competitions were being staged, Lee is dubbed "cabbage boy" here because he started snowboarding when he was 11 years-old at a sledding slope in his hometown which had previously been a cabbage patch.
After winning the silver medal, Lee said he was not sure he would win a medal.
"I couldn't have expected it. When I practiced I thought maybe I might be able to stand on the podium, but I was never sure of it.
"I can't deny this is the best I could have done, but you can't help but think you have a chance at gold when you're in the final," Lee said.
Lee said he really likes his nickname because it explains everything about his life as a snowboarder.
"I think it's a great nickname," he said. "It really captures in essence where I come from and how I came to be the snowboarder I am today."
He said he is proud of himself for taking a step closer to former figure skating champion Kim Yuna.
"I've said I wanted to become like Kim Yuna because she is someone every athlete can look up to as a role model, regardless of their sport," Lee said. "And I am proud of myself for taking a step closer to her."
Lee made his international debut in 2010 and went on to win the silver medal in 2014 in the parallel giant slalom at the International Ski Federation (FIS) Junior World Championships in Italy.
Lee emerged as a medal hopeful for Korea, winning two gold medals at the Sapporo Asian Winter Games last year and finishing fifth at the World Championships in Spain.
Though he has struggled this season with inconsistent performances, he said he was in his best condition for PyeongChang.
"My condition is at its best. When I was going through the World Cups, I wasn't in the right condition. I was peaking for the Olympics. My results in the World Cups weren't as good, I was trying to do my best here," Lee said.
He added the support of the home crowd was really helpful for him. "They were really helpful. I thought the cheering of the crowd might be a burden, but it actually turned out to be really good in helping me release stress. I could concentrate more, thanks to the crowd."
Following Yun Sung-bin who won the gold in the men's skeleton race at the PyeongChang Olympics, Lee also became the second Korean athlete to win an Olympic medal in a non-ice sport.
Ever since the country made its first appearance in the Winter Olympics in 1948, Korea has won all of its 53 Olympic medals from ice sports before PyeongChang.
With the silver medal, Korea has won at least one medal in four different sports at a single Winter Games for the first time. Snowboarding is now the fifth sport in which Korea has won a medal in the Winter Olympics following speed skating, short track, figure skating and skeleton.
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