Lee SH wins successive woman's 500m speed skating in Olympic record time in Sochi

Speed skater Lee Sang-hwa on Tuesday finally gave South Korea its first medal of the Sochi Winter Games, taking the women's 500 meters to retain her Olympic title in a record-breaking fashion.

Also on Tuesday, the women's curling team beat Japan in its Olympic debut before coming up short against Switzerland in the round robin play.

Lee's victory at Adler Arena Skating Center was the story of the day for South Korea, which has set out to win four gold medals in Russia but failed to win any over the first three days of competition.

In the two-race sprint event, Lee established Olympic records in both the single race, with 37.28 seconds in her second run, and the combined time, with 74.70 seconds. She owns the world record time of 36.36 seconds, set in a World Cup race in November.

Catriona Le May Doan of Canada had the previous Olympic records in both categories with 37.30 seconds and 74.75 seconds, set at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

Lee beat Olga Fatkulina of Russia by 0.36 second, the largest margin of victory in the 500m since the event adopted the two-race format in 1998.

In the process, Lee became the third repeat Olympic champion in the women's 500m, joining American Bonnie Blair and Le May Doan.

Lee had the fastest time in the field in both races on Tuesday, clocking at 37.42 seconds to put herself in position for the gold and sealing the deal with 37.28 seconds in the second race.

She was in the last pairing in the second race. Needing to beat 37.64 seconds for her second straight gold, Lee covered the first 100m in 10.17 seconds, easily the best lap of the day, and left no doubt as to who would be the champion.

Lee said later she became so emotional that she actually had to fight back tears after only her first race on Tuesday.

"Memories of all the hard work came flooding back to me," the 24-year-old said. "I tried not to think of it as an Olympic race, but once I entered the rink, I became nervous. After it was all over, I told myself, 'Yes, I've done it.'"

She said she was fueled by whispers that her first gold medal four years ago had been a fluke.

"I didn't want to hear any talk about being a one-hit wonder," Lee said. "That really pushed me hard and helped me get to where I am today."

This was Lee's third Winter Games. She turns 25 later this month, and could still be in her athletic prime by February 2018, when South Korea's PyeongChang will stage the Winter Olympics.

Lee refused to commit to the first Winter Games in her native country.

"After the end of the Vancouver Olympics, I was asked about Sochi, but four years is a very long time for me," she said. "I will need to think more about my future."

While Lee mulled over her fourth Winter Games, South Korean female curlers made their Olympic debut with a mixed result on Tuesday.

Led by skip Kim Ji-sun, the curling team defeated Japan 12-7 in the day's first round robin contest. In the evening affair, South Korea lost to Switzerland 8-6.

South Korea took advantage of Japan's miscues to emerge victorious from a seesawing affair. Then against Switzerland, South Korea blew an early 2-0 lead and trailed 5-4 after seven ends.

In the eighth end, South Korea wasted an opportunity to pull even and conceded two points to fall behind 7-4. The resilient South Koreans cut the deficit to 7-6 in the ninth end, but it was as close as they would come against the world No. 4.

In the final end, South Korea had two stones in the house to Switzerland's one, with one stone left for the Europeans. Swiss skip Mirjam Ott then executed a takeout and secured one more point in the process for the victory.

South Korea will next face world No. 1 Sweden at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

South Korea qualified for the Olympics by reaching the semifinals at the 2012 world championships. At No. 10 in the world, South Korea is the lowest-ranked nation among 10 countries that qualified for Sochi.

The top four nations after the round robin play will advance to the semifinals.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, two South Korean snowboarders failed to make it out of the qualification round in the men's halfipipe.

Kim Ho-jun, in his second straight Olympics, finished 14th out of 20 boarders in his group with 61.75 points. The top three earned automatic berths in the final, while those ranked fourth to ninth advanced to the semifinals. Kim was eight points out of the last qualification spot.

Lee Ki-kwang, an Olympic rookie, ended in 11th place among 20 boarders in his group, scoring 69.50 points. He fell 1.75 points shy of a spot in the semifinals.

Also on Tuesday, Sung Eun-ryung finished 29th in the field of 31 in the women's singles luge event. (Yonhap)