Lee Ji-hyun (swimmer)

Lee Ji-hyun

Personal information
Full name	Lee Ji-hyun
National team	South Korea
Born	27 June 1978 Seoul, South Korea
Height	1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Weight	55 kg (121 lb)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Backstroke, medley
Medal record Women's swimming Competitor for South Korea Asian Games 1994 Hiroshima 4×100 m medley

Lee Ji-hyun (also Lee Ji-hyeon, Korean: 이 지현; born June 27, 1978) is a South Korean former swimmer, who specialized in backstroke and individual medley events.^[1] She won the bronze medal in the medley relay at the 1994 Asian Games, and later represented South Korea in two editions of the Olympic Games (1996 and 2000).

Lee started her competitive swimming, as a 16-year-old teen, at the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan. She helped the South Koreans earn a bronze medal in the 4×100 m medley relay with a time of 4:22.11.

Lee made her first South Korean team at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. There, she failed to reach the top 16 final in any of her individual events, finishing eighteenth in the 100 m backstroke (1:03.96), and twenty-eighth in the 400 m individual medley (4:59.52).^[2][3] In the 4×100 m medley relay, Lee, along with Lee Bo-eun, Byun Hye-young, and Park Woo-hee, placed eighteenth from the prelims in 4:18.98.^[4]

At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Lee swam only in the 400 m individual medley. She achieved a FINA B-cut of 4:48.76 from the Dong-A Swimming Championships in Ulsan.^[5] She challenged seven other swimmers in heat four, including Ukraine's top medal contender Yana Klochkova. Coming from behind at the final turn, she edged out Malaysia's Sia Wai Yen with a robust freestyle kick to save a seventh seed in 4:58.94, just ten seconds below her submitted entry standard. Lee failed to advance into the semifinals, as she placed twenty-third overall on the first day of prelims.^[6][7]

References

1. "Lee Ji-hyun". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
2. "Atlanta 1996: Aquatics (Swimming) – Women's 100m Backstroke Heat 2" (PDF). Atlanta 1996. LA84 Foundation. p. 42. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
3. "Atlanta 1996: Aquatics (Swimming) – Women's 400m Individual Medley Heat 1" (PDF). Atlanta 1996. LA84 Foundation. p. 50. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
4. "Atlanta 1996: Aquatics (Swimming) – Women's 4×100m Medley Relay Heat 4" (PDF). Atlanta 1996. LA84 Foundation. p. 53. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
5. "Swimming – Women's 400m Individual Medley Startlist (Heat 4)" (PDF). Sydney 2000. Omega Timing. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
6. "Sydney 2000: Swimming – Women's 400m Individual Medley Heat 4" (PDF). Sydney 2000. LA84 Foundation. p. 330. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
7. Newberry, Paul (16 September 2000). "Thompson anchors U.S. relay win; Thorpe wins 400 free". Canoe.ca. Retrieved 28 May 2013.