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Decorated South Korean Olympian suspended one year

By OlympicTalkJul 9, 2019, 8:18 AM EDT
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Lee Seung-Hoon, South Korea’s most decorated male Winter Olympian, was suspended one year after May 2018 allegations of physically assaulting younger athletes, according to South Korean media.

Lee, who can appeal the ban to July 2020, has denied all allegations, according to Yonhap News Agency.

Lee, 31, is a five-time medalist across the last three Winter Games. is best known for being upgraded to gold in the 2010 Olympic 10,000m after Dutchman Sven Kramer skated in the wrong lane.

Lee earned another gold in the first Olympic mass start in PyeongChang last year, becoming one of four South Koreans to earn individual gold at their home Games.

With five medals and two golds, Lee passed short track skater Lee Ho-Suk as South Korea’s most decorated male Winter Olympian. He has not competed on the top international level since the PyeongChang Olympics.

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Lee Sang-Hwa, fastest female speed skater in history, retires

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By Nick ZaccardiMay 10, 2019, 3:41 AM EDT
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Lee Sang-Hwa, a two-time Olympic 500m champion and the fastest woman ever in that sprint, has retired, according to South Korean media.

Lee, 30, had not competed on the World Cup since taking silver at the PyeongChang Olympics, where she was one of the host nation’s most high-profile athletes.

In fact, a pre-Games survey of 1,000 people by the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism ranked Lee as the most anticipated South Korean athlete of the Olympics.

The self-described “Lego maniac” debuted at the Olympics in 2006 at age 16, then took 500m gold in 2010 and 2014. She also lowered the world record four times in 2013, bringing it to 36.36 seconds.

A right knee injury and the rise of Japan’s Nao Kodaira made Lee an underdog in PyeongChang. Indeed, Kodaira won in an Olympic and sea-level record 36.94 seconds, holding off Lee by .39.

“Actually, I felt pressure a bit to defend my title again,” Lee said after the race, according to Yonhap News Agency. “In the past, I was worried about falling from the top. But this time, she is the top dog, not me.

“Due to the knee injury, I had lost my sense of speed. It took a year and half to regain it. Finally, it’s over.”

A memorable moment occurred after when Kodaira put her arm around a tearful Lee, both skaters carrying the flags of their historically rival nations together in a show of unity.

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Who are Japan’s most visible athletes ahead of Tokyo Olympics?

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By Nick ZaccardiApr 25, 2019, 8:41 AM EDT
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No surprise, Yuzuru Hanyu garnered the most major TV coverage of any Japanese athlete in 2018.

Nihon Monitor, a media research and analysis company in Japan, reported that the double Olympic champion figure skater received 186 hours, 26 minutes of TV time last year among six major domestic networks.

Other PyeongChang Olympic medalists made the list: figure skater Shoma Uno (fourth, 94 hours) and speed skaters Nao Kodaira (fifth, 87 hours) and Miho Takagi (sixth, 85 hours).

The only athlete in the top eight with Tokyo Olympic hopes was tennis player Naomi Osaka, who ranked third with 118 hours, one spot behind Los Angeles Angels phenom Shohei Ohtani (177 hours).

Three soccer players and yokozuna Hakuhō Shō rounded out the top 10.

Osaka, a 21-year-old born in Osaka to a Japanese mother and a Haitian father, has lived in the U.S. since age 3. She won the U.S. Open in September in a memorable final with Serena Williams. She captured the next Grand Slam, the Australian Open in January, to become world No. 1.

“Every time the Japanese press is at a tournament they always talk about the Tokyo Olympics,” Osaka said in June, according to the Times of London.

Osaka just missed the 2016 Rio Games. She was 87th in the world on the rankings cutoff date. The lowest-ranked player to make the Olympic women’s singles field — outside of continental/tripartite/host country representation — was No. 86. Osaka could have been ineligible anyway because she had yet to compete for Japan in Fed Cup.

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