Lee Si-hyeong

Lee Si-hyeong (Hangul: 이시형; born December 15, 2000) is a South Korean figure skater.

He represented his country at the 2022 Winter Olympics and is a five-time South Korean national medalist (bronze in 2017, 2019, silver in 2020-22, 2024).

Lee was born on December 15, 2000, in Seoul, South Korea and has a twin sister.

Lee began figure skating at the age of ten after being inspired by Yuna Kim's victories at the 2009 World Championships and 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Lee and his family moved him from Seoul to Namyangju, Gyeonggi-do so that Lee could train at the Taereung National Training Center.

Lee's parents divorced in 2011, leaving his mother, Seung-hee, as the sole provider for him and his sister.

She moved Lee, Lee's sister, and Lee's grandmother from Seoul to Namyangju, Gyeonggi-do so that Lee could pursue his figure skating career.

The family initially lived in a tiny single-room gosiwon.

Seung-hee also had to work twelve hours per day at a gimbap store to support the family and pay for Lee's skating.

As a junior skater, Lee competed at 2013 Asian Open Trophy, where he finished second and then went on to win the bronze medal 2013 Korean Junior Championships.

The following year, Lee won another silver medal at Asian Open Trophy on the junior level.

At the 2014 Korean Championships, Lee placed second on the junior level and eighth on the senior level.

At the 2015 Korean Championships, Lee finished sixth.

Making his international debut, Lee placed ninth and eighth at 2015 Junior Grand United States and 2015 Junior Grand Prix Croatia, respectively.

In 2016, Lee's mother tore her rotator cuff ligament from rolling gimbap too hard, making her unable to work.

Additionally, Seung-hee, who had been diagnosed with thyroid and cervical cancer, had to undergo three surgeries.

As a result, Lee was unable to pay for his training and forced to temporarily stop.

After a month of not training, skating fans raised money so that Lee could continue skating.

Eventually, The Green Umbrella Children's Foundation learned of Lee's situation and agreed to pay for his training fees.

Lee credits his mother as being the main reason for him being able to achieve results throughout his skating career, saying, “My mother endured constant pain and worked.

In the end, it wasn't until she lost the use of her arm that she underwent surgery, and I made a promise then.

I said, 'My mother went this far, but I must succeed'.

The person who made me who I am today and my role model is my mother.

I love my mom.”

Lee is a devout Protestant and currently attends Korea University, where he studies sports science.

His figure skating idols are Yuna Kim and Joshua Farris.

He concluded his season with a fifth-place finish at the 2016 Korean Championships.

Lee started the 2016–17 figure skating season by placing seventeenth at 2016 Junior Grand Prix France and eighth at 2016 Junior Grand Prix Russia.

Making his senior international debut, Lee also competed at the 2016 CS Ondrej Nepela Memorial, where he placed eleventh.

Lee then went on to win the bronze medal at the 2017 Korean Championships and was selected to compete at the 2017 Four Continents Championships and the 2017 World Junior Championships, where he finished sixteenth at both events.

Following this season, Lee switched coaches from longtime coach, Oh Ji-yeon, to Hong Ye-seul.

Lee began the 2017–18 figure skating season with a ninth and tenth-place finishes at 2017 Junior Grand Prix Belarus and 2017 Junior Grand Prix Italy, respectively.

He was named to the 2018 Four Continents and 2018 World Junior teams, following a fourth-place finish at the 2018 Korean Championships.

Lee would go on to place twenty-second and eleventh, respectively, at those events.

Following this season, Lee left coach, Hong Ye-seul to train under Choi Hyung-kyung.

Although assigned to compete at 2018 Junior Grand Prix Canada and 2018 Asian Open Trophy, Lee withdrew from both events.

After winning the bronze medal at the 2019 Korean Championships, Lee was assigned to compete at the 2019 Four Continents Championships and the 2019 World Junior Championships.

He placed fifteenth at Four Continents and then went on to place twenty-ninth in the short program at Junior Worlds, failing to advance to the free skate segment of the competition.

Lee won his first international figure skating medal, a silver at 2019 Junior Grand Prix Latvia, before finishing sixth at 2019 Junior Grand Prix Croatia.

Lee would then go on to finish fifth at 2019 Asian Open Trophy.