Go to contents

Snowboarder Lee Sang-ho grabs gold at 2017 Asian Winter Games

Snowboarder Lee Sang-ho grabs gold at 2017 Asian Winter Games

Posted February. 20, 2017 07:07,   

Updated February. 20, 2017 07:15

한국어
A seven-year-old boy who used to snowboard on a cabbage patch 15 years ago recently gained spotlight at the 2017 Asian Winter Games. As Korean star snowboarder Lee Sang-ho (Korea National Sports University) won the gold medal in Sapporo on Sunday, the first day of the winter sports event, Lee gave a fresh start for the Korean national team.

Lee rose to the first place with the combined time of 1:35.76 after two runs at the men’s giant slalom race held in Sapporo Teine, just before the opening ceremony was held. He has become the first Korean snowboarder to win a gold medal at Asian Games.

Born in Jeongseon County, Gangwon Province, he started to snowboard when he was first grader at elementary school. He used to tumble down on the alpine cabbage patch-turned-sledding slope redeveloped by his father. There, he toppled and rolled over numerous times when his class was over. Hence the nickname “cabbage patch boy.”

Two years later, he chose snowboarding as his official career in 2004, and showed remarkable development as he finished second in the 2013–14 Snowboard Junior World Championships. What’s more, he beat all his competitors and won gold at the PGS of the Junior World Championships 2015. Lee continued to show outstanding performances when he was placed as the fourth best PGS snowboarder at the International Ski Federation (FIS) Snowboard World Cup in Italy in last December, the highest ever for a South Korean athlete.

After a shocking ranking at 20th from the recent FIS Snowboard World Cup in Pyeongchang, Lee once again reignited his dreams of becoming Korea’s first FIS Snowboard World Cup medalist at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018. “The images of cabbage patch and my parents passed by when I confirmed it was a gold medal," said the exhilarated Lee. "I am thrilled to rewrite the history of Korean snowboarding. I am also confident as ever as I prepare for the PyeongChang Olympics. My next goal is an Olympic gold medal." His challenge for his second champion title begins at the men’s slalom Monday.



Jae-Yeong Yoo elegant@donga.com