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Revision as of 19:35, 6 June 2003 by Menchi (talk | contribs) (Korea Olympian)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Sohn Kee-chung, or in , Son Gi-jung (손기정 ; 孫基禎) (1912 - 2000), was the first award-winning Korean Olympian.
Born in Sineui-Ju (신의주; 新義州) and educated inMeiji University (明治大學), Sohn Kee-chung participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics as a runner who finished his race in 2.39.19.2 minutes. He received a gold medal.
Sohn Kee-chung was forced by the Japanese Occupation government to use the Japanese name Kitei Son, however. The patriotic Sohn Kee-chung refused to sign his names in Japanese during the Olympics, and 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.
Korea's East Asia Daily (東亞日報) 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黃永祚, who was the champion of the [[1992 Summer Olympics]] marathon.
He wrote an autobiography called My Motherland and Marathon (《我的祖國和我的馬拉松》).
Sohn Kee-chung died at the age of 90 at midnight on November 15, 2000 due to pneumonia.