Lee Si-hyeong (; born December 15, 2000) is a South Korean

figure skater Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, with its introduction occurring at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic d ...

. He is the

2022 CS Nebelhorn Trophy The 2022 CS Nebelhorn Trophy was held on September 21–24, 2022, in Oberstdorf, Germany. It was the third event of the 2022–23 ISU Challenger Series. Medals were awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. Entrie ...

silver medalist, and a seven-time South Korean national medalist. He represented his country at the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), were an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beijing, China, and surrounding areas wit ...

Personal life

Lee was born on December 15, 2000, in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

and has a twin sister. Lee's parents divorced in 2011, leaving his mother, Seung-hee, as the sole provider for him and his sister. She moved Lee, his sister, and grandmother to

Namyangju Namyangju (; ) is a city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. To the east is Gapyeong County, to the west is Guri, and to the north is Pocheon. Namyangju was originally a southern part of Yangju-gun, but was separated into Namyangju-gun in April ...

Gyeonggi Province Gyeonggi Province (, ) is the most populous province in South Korea. Seoul, the nation's largest city and capital, is in the heart of the area but has been separately administered as a provincial-level ''special city'' since 1946. Incheon, ...

so that Lee could pursue his figure skating career. The family initially lived in a tiny single-room

gosiwon () are a kind of single room occupancy class of building found in South Korea. Originally designed for students preparing to take exams, they are characterized by low rent, shared bathrooms and kitchens, and very limited private space. They are ...

. Seung-hee would work twelve hours per day at a

gimbap ''Gimbap'' (; ), also romanized as ''kimbap'', is a Korean cuisine, Korean dish made from Bap (rice dish), ''bap'' (cooked rice), vegetables, and optionally cooked seafood or meat, rolled in ''gim (food), gim''—dried sheets of seaweed—and s ...

store to support the family and pay for Lee's skating. In 2016, Lee's mother tore her rotator cuff ligament from rolling gimbap too hard, making her unable to work. Additionally, she to undergo three surgeries after being diagnosed with

thyroid The thyroid, or thyroid gland, is an endocrine gland in vertebrates. In humans, it is a butterfly-shaped gland located in the neck below the Adam's apple. It consists of two connected lobes. The lower two thirds of the lobes are connected by ...

and

cervical cancer Cervical cancer is a cancer arising from the cervix or in any layer of the wall of the cervix. It is due to the abnormal growth of cells that can invade or spread to other parts of the body. Early on, typically no symptoms are seen. Later sympt ...

. 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 Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

and currently attends

Korea University Korea University (KU, ) is a Private university, private research university in Seoul, South Korea. Established in 1905 by Yi Yong-ik, Lee Yong-Ik, a prominent official of the Korean Empire, Korea University is among South Korea's oldest List of ...

, where he studies

sports science Sports science is a discipline that studies how the healthy human body works during exercise, and how sports and physical activity promote health and performance from cellular to whole body perspectives. The study of sports science traditionally i ...

. His figure skating idols are

Yuna Kim Yuna Kim (; born September 5, 1990), also credited in eastern name order as Kim Yuna or Kim Yeon-a, is a South Korean figure skater. Known for her well-rounded skills, achievements, popularity, and impact on the sport, she is one of the most ...

and

Joshua Farris Joshua Farris (born January 6, 1995) is a retired American competitive figure skater. He is the 2015 Four Continents silver medalist, the 2013 World Junior Championship gold medalist, a two-time Junior Grand Prix Final medalist (silver in 2012, ...

Career

Early career

Lee began figure skating at the age of ten after being inspired by

's victories at the 2009 World Championships and

2010 Vancouver Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

. Lee and his family moved him from

so that Lee could train at the Taereung National Training Center. 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.

2015–16 season

Making his international debut, Lee placed ninth and eighth at 2015 Junior Grand United States and 2015 Junior Grand Prix Croatia, respectively. He concluded his season with a fifth-place finish at the 2016 Korean Championships.

2016–17 season

Lee started the

2016–17 figure skating season The 2016–17 figure skating season began on July 1, 2016, and ended on June 30, 2017. During this season, elite skaters competed at the 2017 European Championships, Four Continents Championships, World Junior Championships, and World Champio ...

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.

2017–18 season

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.

2018–19 season

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.

2019–20 season

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. Competing at the 2020 South Korean Championships, Lee won the silver medal behind

Cha Jun-hwan Cha Jun-hwan (; born October 21, 2001) is a South Korean figure skater. He is the 2023 World silver medalist, the 2022 Four Continents champion, the 2025 Four Continents silver medalist, the 2024 Four Continents bronze medalist, the 2018– ...

and was assigned to compete at the 2020 Four Continents Championships, where he finished fourteenth.

2020–21 season

Due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

pandemic, Lee only competed at the 2021 Korean Championships, where he won his second consecutive silver.

2021–22 season

Sihyeong Lee performing his short program at the 2022 World Championships

's tenth-place finish at the 2021 World Championships earned two spots for men's singles at the 2022 World Championships and provided the opportunity for Korean men's singles skaters to earn a second berth for the

2022 Beijing Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), were an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beijing, China, and surrounding areas wit ...

at the

Nebelhorn Trophy The Nebelhorn Trophy is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU), organized and hosted by the German Ice Skating Union () and held in Oberstdorf, Germany. The competition debuted in 1969 and is na ...

, the final Olympic figure skating qualifying event. Lee was able to grant that second berth, following his fifth-place finish at the Nebelhorn Trophy. He then went on to finish seventh at 2021 Asian Open Trophy. After winning the silver medal at the 2022 Korean Championships, Lee was named to the

Four Continents Europeans in the 16th century divided the world into four continents: Africa, America, Asia, and Europe. Each of the four continents was seen to represent its quadrant of the world—Africa in the south, America in the west, Asia in the east, a ...

, Olympic, and World team for South Korea. Lee finished seventh at the Four Continents Championships. Competing at the 2022 Winter Olympics in the men's event, Lee placed twenty-seventh in the short program and failed to advance to the event's free skate segment. Regardless, Lee stated that he was grateful for the "valuable and precious experience." At the 2022 World Championships, Lee scored a personal best in the short program, finishing thirteenth in that segment of the competition but dropped to eighteenth overall following an error-ridden free skate. During those championships, Lee expressed his support for

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

following Russia's invasion by having a

Ukrainian flag The national flag of Ukraine (, ) consists of equally sized horizontal bands of blue and yellow. The blue and yellow bicolor flag was first seen during the 1848 Spring of Nations in Lemberg (Lviv), the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lo ...

patch pinned to his jacket.

2022–23 season

Lee began the

2022–23 figure skating season The 2022–23 figure skating season began on July 1, 2022, and ended on June 30, 2023. During this season, elite skaters competed at the ISU (International Skating Union) Championship level at the 2023 European Championships, Four Continents Ch ...

with a silver medal win at the

, where he scored a new personal best in the short program. Competing at his first senior ISU Grand Prix event, Lee competed at

2022 Grand Prix de France The 2022 Grand Prix de France was the third event of the 2022–23 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at the Angers IceParc in Angers from November 4–6. Medals were award ...

where he finished in fourth-place, scoring a personal best in the free skate and placed second in that segment of the competition. He would go on to describe this event as one of the "highlights of his career so far" in an interview following the season. Lee was selected to compete at the 2023 Winter University Games and 2023 Four Continents Championships, after finishing fourth at the 2023 Korean Championships. He would place sixth at both of these events. Lee would then go on to participate at 2023 World Team Trophy following the qualification of Team South Korea for the first time in the event's history. Lee earned the team a total of four points from his tenth-place short program and twelfth-place free skate. However, with the team's combined scored, South Korea managed to win the team silver medal overall. Sihyeong Lee 2024 Worlds Short Program 6

Sihyeong Lee 2024 Worlds Short Program 6

2023–24 season

Having attended the 2015 Four Continents Championships in

, Lee was inspired by

's " Give Me Love" short program and decided to have Farris choreograph his 2023–24 free program. He specifically asked Farris to choreograph a program in a similar style to what Farris would have skated to. Lee announced his withdrawal from his Challenger assignments due to a ligament tear. Making his season debut on the

Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural ''Grands Prix'') most commonly refers to: * Grand Prix motor racing, a form of motorsport competition ** List of Formula One Grands Prix, an auto-racing championship *** Monaco Grand Prix, the most prestigious ...

at the 2023 Cup of China, he finished eighth. Lee subsequently withdrew from the

2023 NHK Trophy The 2023 NHK Trophy was the sixth event of the 2023–24 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at the Towa Pharmaceutical Ractab Dome in Osaka, Japan, from November 24–26. ...

. At the national Ranking Competition, Lee came in ninth-place and ultimately wasn't selected to compete at the 2024 Four Continents Championships as a result. He followed this up by winning his fourth national silver medal at the 2024 South Korean Championships and was named to the 2024 World team. Lee placed twenty-fourth at the World Championships.

2024–25 season

Lee began the season by winning the 2024 Asian Open Trophy. He then competed at the 2024 Korean Universiade and Asian Games Qualifiers, where he finished third. With this result, Lee was selected to represent South Korea at the

2025 Winter World University Games The 2025 FISU Winter World University Games, also known as the XXXII Winter World University Games, or the 32nd Winter Universiade, and commonly known as Turin 2025 or Torino 2025, was a multi-sport event for student and youth athletes, held bet ...

. In late November, Lee would compete at the annual South Korean Ranking Competition, where he won the bronze medal. With this result, Lee was named to the 2025 Four Continents Championships team. One month later, he won the bronze medal at the 2025 South Korean Championships, earning a spot on the 2025 World team. In mid-January, Lee finished ninth at the

Turin, Italy Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

. One month later, although set to compete at the 2025 Four Continents Championships in

, Lee was forced to withdraw on the day of the short program after dislocating his left shoulder that resulted from a hard fall he took during one of the practice sessions. He subsequently withdrew from the 2025 World Championships due to this injury.

Skating technique

Lee is known for primarily performing his jumps with both arms over his head, which he says helps him find balance in the air.

Programs

Competitive highlights

2020–21 and onwards

''GP:

; CS: Challenger Series''

2012–13 to 2019–20

''JGP:

Junior Grand Prix The ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating (titled the ISU Junior Series in the 1997–98 season) is a series of international junior-level competitions organized by the International Skating Union. Medals are awarded in the disciplines of men ...

Detailed results

Senior level

Junior level

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Si-hyeong 2000 births Living people South Korean male single skaters Sportspeople from Namyangju Figure skaters at the 2022 Winter Olympics Olympic figure skaters for South Korea Competitors at the 2023 Winter World University Games Figure skaters from Gyeonggi Province 21st-century South Korean sportsmen Competitors at the 2025 Winter World University Games