Snowboarder rues opportunity to cheer up South Korea with gold

South Korea's Lee Sang-ho competes in the snowboard men's parallel giant slalom qualification run during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at the Genting Snow Park P & X Stadium in Zhangjiakou on Tuesday. AFP-Yonhap

With its short track speed skaters unable to come through with medals in the early days of Beijing 2022, South Korea turned its eyes toward alpine snowboarder Lee Sang-ho with great anticipation Tuesday.

But Lee himself couldn't deliver, as one of the top medal contenders was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the men's parallel giant slalom in Zhangjiakou, some 180 kilometers northwest of Beijing.

"I felt I had a strong chance to grab a medal here, and that was my goal," Lee said after losing to Victor Wild of the Russian Olympic Committee by 0.01 second. "I wanted to give our people back home something to cheer about."

This has been a disastrous start to the Olympics for South Korea. It has been shut out of medals after two days' worth of short track races, and refereeing controversy, not any on-ice feats, has dominated the headlines. With no short track races scheduled for Tuesday, Lee represented South Korea's best hope for its first medal of these Winter Games.

The 2018 Olympic silver medalist is currently the overall points leader in the International Ski Federation (FIS) World Cup season, thanks to four medals, including a gold, in seven appearances.
Wild, on the other hand, came in ranked 20th this season, though he does have pedigree as a double gold medalist at Sochi 2014.

And Lee said World Cup ranking positions can be thrown out the window because of how unpredictable his sport often can be.

To wit: No. 2 this season, Stefan Baumeister of Germany, didn't even make it out of the qualification stage, as he ranked 18th.

Only the top 16 reached the knockout phase. Lee earned the top seed and beat No. 16 seed from Italy, Daniele Bagozza, in the first elimination showdown.

But that would be it for Lee, who lost by the slimmest of margins.

"Whether I lose by 0.01 second or one second, I still lost," he said. "I don't get caught up in numbers like that."

Lee said while he is disappointed with himself that he couldn't reach the top of the podium, he accomplished another goal that was dear to his heart.

"Personally, my biggest objective was to make sure I wouldn't have any regrets at the end of the Olympics, no matter how well or poorly I did," Lee said. "The result leaves a lot to be desired, but I am also relieved because I left everything out there."

Lee, 26, said the four years between PyeongChang 2018 and now put him through a roller coaster ride, and he is proud of having endured much adversity.

"I'd like to pat myself on the back to have come this far," Lee said. "I was in a slump, I was hurt, and I had problems with my equipment. There was also added pressure of being the silver medalist from PyeongChang. But I think I handled myself really well, and I had a lot of support along the way." (Yonhap)

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