Lee Sang hwa

Lee Sanghwa is a South Korean long track speed skater who specialises in the sprint distances. She is a twotime Olympic champion in 500 metres and the 2010 World Sprint champion. She is the current world record holder in womens 500 metres with the time of 36.36 seconds set in Salt Lake City onNovember 2013, and also holds the South Korean record on 1000 metres. She has also won three World Championships medals in 500 metres, and has placed in the top three in World Cup events four times in this distance. Her first World Cup victory, however, came on the nonOlympic distance 100 metres. On the 1000 metres, however, she has never placed higher than fifth in international events .

Lee Sanghwa was born in 1989 to Lee Ugeun , a technician at Hwigyeong Girls School, and Kim Insun . Lee has an older brother, Lee Sangjun, who used to be a skater, too. Influenced by her brother, she started skating when she was in first grade at Eunseok Elementary School. Although her brother excelled at skating, and won a skating competition held in his elementary school, Lee appeared to have more talent for skating than him. Since their parents could not afford to support the extra activity of both children, only she continued skating.

Source: Wikipedia