Sohn Kee-chung

Infobox Korean name|tablewidth=280
hangul=손기정
hanja=孫基禎
rr=Son Gijeong
mr=Son Ki-jŏng

Sohn Kee-Chung (August 29, 1912 – November 15, 2002) became the first medal-winning Korean Olympian when he won the gold medal in the Marathon at the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a member of the Japanese delegation, under the name of "Son Kitei", which is the Japanese pronunciation of the hanja making up his name.

Life

Born in Sinŭiju, North P'yŏngan Province, Sohn Kee-Chung was educated at Yangjeong High School (양정고등학교) and Meiji University in Japan, from which he graduated in 1940.

Between 1933 and 1936, he ran 13 marathons and won 10 of them.

He set the World Best time of 2:26:42 on November 3, 1935, which lasted about 10 years until his trainee Suh Yun-Bok won the 1947 Boston marathon with a new world record.

His personal best was even better, 2:25:14 on a 42.715km course, 520 m longer than the standard one (equivalent to 2:23:28 for 42.195 km), and 2:24:51 on a probably short course. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics as a marathon runner who finished 42.195 kilometres in 2:29:19.2. He broke the olympic best and received the gold medal, with his Korean teammate Nam Sung-yong finishing third to win the bronze.

Sohn spent the remainder of his career coaching other notable runners such as:
* Suh Yun-Bok, the winner of the Boston Marathon in 1947, who broke his world record with a time of 2:25:39.
* Ham Kee-Yong, winner of the Boston Marathon in 1950
* Hwang Young-Cho, who was the gold medalist of the 1992 Summer Olympics marathon, and whom Sohn Kee-Chung especially went to Barcelona to see

Afterwards he became the Chairman of the Korean Sporting Association. At the 1988 Summer Olympics in his home country of South Korea, he was given the honor of carrying the Olympic torch into the stadium at the opening ceremony.

He authored an autobiography entitled "My Motherland and Marathon" (나의조국과 마라톤).

He was honoured with the Order of Civil Merit (Hangul:국민훈장) and posthumously, Grand Cordon (Blue Dragon) of the Order of Sporting Merit.

Sohn Kee-Chung died at the age of 90 at midnight on November 15 2002 from pneumonia, and was buried at the Daejeon National Cemetery.

Afterwards, the Sohn Kee-Chung Memorial Park was established.

Marathon and media

At the time of the Berlin Olympics in 1936, Korea was occupied by Japan as its de facto colony. Sohn Kee-Chung was forced to compete for the Japanese team using the adopted Japanese name of "Son Kitei", the Japanese pronunciation of the hanja making up his name. As a nationalist, Sohn Kee-Chung refused to sign his name in Japanese and signed only his Korean name, and even sketched the shape of Korea beside his signatures. When interviewers asked him about his country, he would clarify that Korea was his mother country.

At the medal ceremony, Sohn was overcome with emotion and shed tears to see the flag of Japan raised and the Japanese national anthem played. Japan was officially credited with Sohn's gold and Nam's bronze in its 1936 Summer Olympics medal count.

One of Korea's domestic newspapers, Dong-a Ilbo, published a photograph of Sohn at the medal ceremony, but had altered the image to remove the Japanese flag from Sohn's uniform. This act so enraged the Japanese regime that it imprisoned eight persons connected with the newspaper and suspended the publication's operations for nine months.

Sohn's Ancient Greece Bronze Helmet

Following his victory, Sohn was to have received an ancient Corinth helmet (circa BCE800-700). The helmet was discovered at Olympia by German archaeologist Ernst Curtius in 1875, and was intended to be awarded to the Marathon winner. It is believed that Sohn was prevented from receiving the helmet by his Japanese coaches.

The helmet instead remained in a Berlin museum until 1986, when through the intervention of a Greek newspaper the helmet was given to Sohn. On March 7 1987 the helmet was categorised as the 904th Korean national treasure. In 2006, replicas of this helmet were awarded to the winners of 10 km, half marathon, and full marathon of the 2006 Sohn Kee-Chung Marathon.

ee also

* List of people of Korean descent

External links

* [http://www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/profiles/bio_uk.asp?par_i_id=88103 International Olympic Committee Athlete Profile of Sohn] - contains brief biography and images.