Lee Sang-ho completes seven World Cups in 1st place

South Korean snowboarder Lee Sang-ho, nicknamed “Cabbage Patch Boy,” conquered the top spot following seven World Cups in the runup to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

The 27-year-old ranked 9th in the octofinals of men’s alpine parallel giant slalom of the 7th International Ski Federation (FIS) Snowboard World Cup of the 2021-2022 season held in Simonhöhe, Austria on Friday (local time) by finishing behind Nevin Galmarini from Switzerland by a gap of 2.64 seconds. Adding 29 points to the World Cup ranking score, he recorded 434 points to rank first with two gold medals, one silver and one bronze.

Despite being the top ranker up to date, he may not be relieved yet because he failed to gain any medal in the 6th and 7th competitions ranking 5th and 9th, respectively. Stefan Baumeister, a German competitor who previously tied for the 2nd place, became a gold medalist in the 7th competition, boasting off his growing competence. With the Olympics coming up, Baumeister has made outstanding records including his silver medal in the 5th World Cup. Lee may be outcompeted by Baumeister to give him the top spot as they still have four World Cups to go until March after the Beijing Olympics ends.

Wrapping up the seven World Cup competitions before Beijing, he is gearing up to claim another Olympic medal following the silver medal in men’s parallel giant slalom in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. The South Korean snowboard team including Lee will come back to South Korea on Monday to get trained hard on their journey to Beijing.


leper@donga.com