Lee Si-hyeong

Lee Si-hyeong (born December 15, 2000) is a South Korean figure skater. He is the 2022 CS Nebelhorn Trophy silver medalist, and a five-time South Korean national medalist (bronze in 2017, 2019, silver in 2020-22, 2024). He represented his country at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Personal life
Lee was born on December 15, 2000, in Seoul, South Korea 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, Lee's sister, and Lee's grandmother from Seoul to Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province 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.

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.

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

2020–21 season
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lee only competed at the 2021 Korean Championships, where he won his second consecutive silver.

2021–22 season
Cha Jun-hwan'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 at the Nebelhorn Trophy, 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, 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 following Russia's invasion by having a Ukrainian flag patch pinned to his jacket.

2022–23 season
Lee began the 2022–23 figure skating season with a silver medal win at the 2022 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, 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 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.

2023–24 season
Having attended the 2015 Four Continents Championships in Seoul, South Korea, Lee was inspired by Joshua Farris'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 at the 2023 Cup of China, he finished eighth. Lee subsequently withdrew from the 2023 NHK Trophy.

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.

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.

Competitive highlights
CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix

Senior level
Current personal best scores are highlighted in bold.