Lee Sang-ho claims silver medal in snowboard world cup

Lee Sang-ho, the first South Korean skier who earned an Olympic medal, showed an outstandingly increasing level of performance in the run-up to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

“Cabbage boy” South Korean snowboarder Lee Sang-ho lost to Dario Caviezel of Switzerland in the final round of the parallel giant slalom discipline in the second International Ski Federation Alpine Snowboard World Cups this season in Cortina d'Ampezzo on Saturday to earn a silver medal. With this year’s third medal claimed following a gold in the parallel giant slalom event and a silver in the parallel slalom discipline, he recorded a total of 300 points to climb on top of the global rankings with a big lead over Stefan Baumeister of Germany.

Ranking third in the qualifier round among a total of 66 participants, Lee grabbed the ticket to the quarterfinal by outdoing Arvid Auner of Austria by a large gap of 4.92 seconds in the octofinals. Winning the quarterfinal against Daniele Bagozza of Italy by 0.33 seconds, he could go to the final as Tim Mastnak of Slovenia failed to finish the course in the semi-final. After a neck-and-neck race against Caviezel of Switzerland, he passed the finishing line later by 0.06 seconds.

Lee became the first South Korean Olympic medalist by claiming a silver medal in the parallel giant slalom discipline in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games. In preparation for the upcoming games in Beijing next February, he is only increasing expectations of winning another Olympic medal.


Heon-Jae Lee uni@donga.com