Sohn Kee-chung
Sohn in 1936 | ||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Native name | 손기정 | |||||||||||
| Born | August 29, 1912 Shingishu, Heianhoku-dō, Korea, Empire of Japan | |||||||||||
| Died | November 15, 2002 (aged 90) Seoul, South Korea | |||||||||||
| Resting place | Daejeon National Cemetery | |||||||||||
| Height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) | |||||||||||
| Weight | 60 kg (132 lb) | |||||||||||
| Korean name | ||||||||||||
| Hangul | 손기정 | |||||||||||
| Hanja | 孫基禎 | |||||||||||
| RR | Son Gijeong | |||||||||||
| MR | Son Kijŏng | |||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | |||||||||||
| Now coaching | Ham Kee-Yong, Suh Yun-Bok | |||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||
| Olympic finals |
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Medal record
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Sohn Kee-chung (Korean: 손기정; Korean pronunciation: [son.kidʑʌŋ]; August 29, 1912 – November 15, 2002) was a Korean Olympic athlete and long-distance runner. He became the first Korean to win a medal at the Olympic Games, winning gold in the marathon at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He was born in the Korean Peninsula, but he was forced to compete as a member of the Japanese delegation because Korea was under Japanese rule at the time. Sohn set an Olympic record of 2 hours 29 minutes 19.2 seconds.
Sohn competed under the Japanese name Kitei Son, as Korea was under Japanese occupation during his career.