Sydney, Sports centre, Olympic Park, 29 September 2000, Games of the XXVII Olympiad: medal ceremony for the -67kg taekwondo event: Sun-Hee LEE of Korea, gold. Credit: Getty Images/Billy Stickland
Born: 3 August 1972
Birthplace: Seoul (Korea / South Korea)
Nationality: Korea / South Korea
Sport: Taekwondo
ATTENDANCE AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES
Barcelona 1992
AWARDS
No awards Other results:
World Championships
Gold: 1 (2003)
Better than strong
In order to qualify for the Korean taekwondo team at the 2000 Olympics, 1996 world junior champion Sun-Hee Lee had to defeat two-time world champion Hyang-Mi Cho. Once at the Sydney Games, Lee began with a 5-1 victory over Kirsimarja Koskinen of Finland and then followed with a 4-1 defeat of Mirjam Mueskens of the Netherlands in the semifinals. In the first round of the final, the bout had to be stopped briefly when Lee's opponent, Trude Gundersen of Norway, kicked her in the throat. Despite this setback, Lee scored twice in each round and won 6-3. Lee said that in taekwondo, "It's not the strongest who becomes the winner; it's the one who beats the strongest."