Lee Sang-hwa (Korean: 이상화; Hanja: 李相花, Korean pronunciation: [i.saŋ.βwa]; born 25 February 1989) is a South Korean retired speed skater who specialises in the sprint distances. She is a two-time Olympic champion in 500 metres (2010 and 2014) and the 2010 World Sprint champion. She was the world record holder in women's 500 metres with the time of 36.36 seconds set in Salt Lake City on 16 November 2013, and held the South Korean record on 1000 metres from March 2009 until January 2024.
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 non-Olympic distance 100 metres. On the 1000 metres, however, she has never placed higher than fifth in international events (2010 World Sprint Championships, first 1000 metres).
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Early life and education
Lee Sang-hwa was born in 1989 to Lee U-geun (father), a technician at Hwigyeong Girls' School, and Kim In-sun (mother). Lee has an older brother, Lee Sang-jun, who was also a skater. Following her older brother’s lead, she started skating when she was in first grade at Eunseok Elementary School. Although her brother excelled at skating, and won a skating competition at his elementary school, Lee appeared to be the better skater. Since their parents could not afford to support the extra-curricular activity for both children, only Sang-hwa continued.
Lee and Mo Tae-bum, gold medalist at Vancouver 2010, are close friends since elementary school. She attended Korea National Sport University with him.
Career
Lee first competed internationally aged 14 in Canada, where she skated several test races in October 2003, winning comfortably and skating with a best time of 39.02 seconds. At the time, the U19 world record was 38.53. Her first ISU championship was in Roseville, Minnesota, during the 2004 World Junior Championships. As the youngest participant, she finished 16th, though she took third place on the 500 metres, 0.45 seconds behind world junior record holder Shannon Rempel.
The following season, she raced 38.77 in test races in Calgary, and was selected for the World Cup races in Nagano, Harbin and Calgary. She placed eighth in her first race, recording 38.71 in the M-Wave, Nagano, 0.29 seconds behind winner Wang Manli. She finished in the top ten a further five times that season, including two fourth-place finishes in 100 metre sprints, which gave her fifth place overall in the 100 metre World Cup. In other achievements, she won two senior Korean titles (on 2 × 500 metres and sprint), and came 14th in the 500 metres World Cup standings, 16th in the 1000 metres, and 15th in the samalog standings in the World Sprint Championships, though she was within half a second of the winner on both 500 metre races, finishing 9th and 12th.
In the World Championships, Lee won three medals that season; two in the junior championships, where she won bronze in the overall standings, though she was four points after the winner after 16th place on the 1500 and 19th on the 3000 metre event, and silver with the Korean team in the team pursuit event. And during the World Single Distance Championships in Inzell in March, two fourth-places were enough to take her to third place overall in the 500 metre competition, behind Chinese skaters Wang Manli and Wang Beixing.
In 2006, Lee improved on the 100 and 500 metres, though she fell into the B division on the 1000 metres. She finished on the World Cup podium four times during the season, including a win in the 100 metre World Cup final, though she finished behind Jenny Wolf in the overall standings. On the 500 metres, she was sixth in the World Cup. She also added three senior Korean titles to her record, winning the 500 metres, 1000 metres, and overall sprint championship. During the season, she registered a world junior record on the 500 metres, with a time of 37.90 in Utah Olympic Oval. She failed to improve on her 1000-metre time from last season, however.
Personal life
On 16 March 2019, Lee's agency confirmed that she and singer Kangnam were dating. They got to know each other while appearing on the SBS variety show Law of the Jungle ("in Last Indian Ocean" part). On 29 August, Kangnam's and Lee Sang Hwa's labels collectively released an official statement, confirming the couple had married. The wedding ceremony was held on 12 October at a hotel in Seoul.
The couple currently resides in a 5-story building constructed by her husband on a piece of land that has been in his family for generations in Yongsan-gu, Seoul.
On Kangnam's personal YouTube channel, his wife's face was kept hidden until the channel reached 800,000 subscribers. Finally, on July 31, 2024, they reached this milestone, and Sanghwa’s face was revealed.