Sohn Kee-chung

From New World Encyclopedia
This is a Korean name; the family name is Sohn.
Olympic medalist
Center
Sohn Kee-chung
Medal record
Men's Athletics
Gold 1936 Berlin Marathon
Sohn Kee-chung
Hangul 손기정
Hanja 孫基禎
Revised Romanization Son Gi-jeong
McCune-Reischauer Son Kijŏng


Sohn Kee-Chung (August 29, 1912 – November 15, 2002) became the first medal-winning Korean Olympian when he won the gold medal in the Marathon at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He was a member of the Japanese delegation, under the name of Son Kitei, which is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese characters making up his name.

Life

Born in Sinŭiju, North P'yŏngan Province, Sohn Kee-Chung was educated at Yangjeong High School (양정고등학교) and Meiji University in Japan, from which he graduated in 1940.

Between 1933 and 1936 he ran 13 marathons and won 10 of them.

He set the World Record of 2:26:42 on November 3, 1935, which lasted about 10 years until his trainee Suh Yun-Bok won the 1947 Boston Marathon with a new world record.

His personal best was even better, 2:25:14 on a course 520 m longer than the standard one (fairly equivalent to 2:23:28 for 42.195 km).

He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics as a marathon runner who finished 42.195 kilometers in 2:29:19.2. He broke the olympic best and received the gold medal, with his Korean teammate Nam Sung-Yong finishing third to win the bronze.

Sohn spent the remainder of his career coaching other notable runners such as:

  • Suh Yun-Bok, the winner of the Boston Marathon in 1947, who broke his world record with a time of 2:25:39.
  • Ham Kee-Yong, winner of the Boston Marathon in 1950
  • Hwang Young-Cho, gold medalist in the 1992 Summer Olympics marathon — Sohn Kee-Chung traveled especially to Barcelona to see him run.

Afterwards he became the Chairman of the Korea Sporting Association.

At the 1988 Summer Olympics in his home country of South Korea, he was given the honor of carrying the Olympic torch into the stadium at the opening ceremony.

He authored an autobiography entitled My Motherland and Marathon (Han-geul: 나의조국과 마라톤).

He was honored with the Order of Civil Merit (Han-geul: 국민훈장) and posthumously, Grand Cordon (Blue Dragon) of the Order of Sporting Merit.

Sohn Kee-Chung died at the age of 90 at midnight on November 15 2002 from pneumonia, and was buried at the Daejeon National Cemetery. He lived long enough to witness the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan.

Afterwards, the Sohn Kee-Chung Memorial Park was established.

Marathon and media

File:Sohn Nam British.jpg
An emotional Sohn at the medal ceremony.

At the time of the Berlin Olympics in 1936, Korea was occupied by Japan as a de facto colony. Sohn Kee-Chung was forced to compete for the Japanese team using the adopted Japanese name of "Son Kitei", the Japanese pronunciation of the hanja making up his name. As a nationalist, Sohn Kee-Chung refused to sign his name in Japanese and signed only his Korean name, and would even sketch the shape of Korea beside his signatures. When interviewered he would clarify that Korea was his mother country.

At the medal ceremony, Sohn was overcome with sorrow and shed tears to see the flag of Japan raised and the Japanese national anthem played. Japan was officially credited with Sohn's gold and Nam's bronze in its 1936 Summer Olympics medal count.

One of Korea's domestic newspapers, the Dong-a Ilbo, published a photograph of Sohn at the medal ceremony, but had altered the image to remove the Japanese flag from Sohn's uniform. This act so enraged the Japanese regime that it imprisoned eight persons connected with the newspaper and suspended the publication's operations for nine months.

Son's Ancient Greece Bronze Helmet

Ancient Greece bronze helmet, that was awarded to Son Ki-Jeong, National Museum of Korea

In South Korea, there is a special ancient Greek bronze helmet, (BC 800? – BC 700?), 21.5 cm high.

This is the bronze helmet that was awarded to Sohn Kee-Chung as a memento of his winning the 1936 Berlin Olympics marathon. It is a helmet of early Corinth style, estimated to have been made in BC 800 – 700. It is said that this helmet was manufactured in Corinth of Greece, and that it was discovered at Olympia by a German archaeologist, Ernst Curtius in 1875. Originally it was intended to be awarded to the marathon winner, but it was not given to Son in Berlin; the coaches had called him to leave quickly, for fear the helmet would have been awarded in the name of Son Ki-Jeong rather in the name of the Japanese team.

Afterwards, per the IOC's rule that nothing other than medals should be awarded, it was put on display to the public in the Berlin Charlotten National Museum. After 50 years, through the help of a Greek newspaper it came into Sohn's hands in 1986 at the age of 74.

On 1987 March 7 it became a Korean National Treasure No. 904th.

Replicas of this helmet were awarded to the winners of 10 km, half marathon, and full marathon of the 2006 Son Ki-Jeong Marathon.

See also

  • List of people of Korean descent



Records
Preceded by:
Flag of Japan Yasuo Ikenaka
Men's Marathon World Record Holder
November 3, 1935 – April 19, 1947
Succeeded by:
Flag of South Korea Suh Yun-Bok

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