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Revision as of 23:56, 6 June 2003 by Menchi (talk | contribs) (I'm such a sports buff)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Sohn Kee-chung, or in revised romanisation, Son Gi-jung (손기정 ; 孫基禎) (1912 - 2000), was the first award-winning Korean Olympian.
Born in Sineui-Ju (신의주; 新義州), North Pyongan Do on August 29, and educated in Meiji University (明治大學), Sohn Kee-chung participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics as a runner who finished his race in 2-hours 39-minutes and 19.2-seconds, breaking the world record. He received a gold medal.
Sohn Kee-chung was forced by the Japanese Occupation government to use the Japanese name Kitei Son (ｿﾝ・ギｼﾞｮﾝ), however. The patriotic Sohn Kee-chung refused to sign his names in Japanese during the Olympics, and sometimes even sketched the shape of Korea beside his signature. When interviewers asked him about his country, he would clarify that Korea is his mother country, not Japan.
When he received the award, so overcame with emotion that the flag rising was of the Empire of Japan and not of Korea, he shed tears.
One of Korea's local newspaper, Dong-a Ilbo (東亞日報) (East Asia Daily), purposefully did not include the Japanese flag in the photo of Sohn Kee-chung receiving the award. And this act enraged the Japanese overseers that 8 newspaper personnels were imprisoned, and the East Asia Daily were forced to stop operation for 9 months.
After the Olympics, he coached runners like:
- Suh Yun-bok, winner of the Boston Marathon in 1947
- Ham Kee-yong, winner of the Boston Marathon in 1950
- Hwang Young-cho (黃永祚), who was the gold medalist of the 1992 Summer Olympics marathon, and for whom Sohn Kee-chung especially went to Barcelona to see, may had been Sohn Kee-chung's student
At the 1988 Summer Olympics, he carried the Olympic torch at the opening ceremony. He wrote an autobiography called My Motherland and Marathon (《我的祖國和我的馬拉松》). He was honoured with Citizen's Merit Award (國民勛章) and posthumously, the Cheongryong Medal.
Sohn Kee-chung died at the age of 90 at midnight on November 15, 2000 due to pneumonia.