Yun Sung-bin

Yun Sung-bin
Personal information
Nickname(s) Iron Man[1]
Born (1994-05-23) 23 May 1994
Namhae, South Korea
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight 87 kg (192 lb)
Sport
Country  South Korea
Sport Skeleton
Medal record
Olympic Games
2018 PyeongchangMen
World Championships
2016 IglsMen
World Cup
2017–2018Men
2016–2017Men
2015–2016Men
Yun Sung-bin
Hangul 윤성빈
Hanja 尹誠彬
Revised Romanization Yun Seongbin
McCune–Reischauer Yun Sŏngbin

Yun Sung-Bin (Hangul: 윤성빈; born 23 May 1994)[2] is a Korean skeleton racer. He won the gold medal in men's skeleton at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and was a participant at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.[3]

Early life and education

Born in 1994 in South Korea’s southern coastal region of Namhae, South Gyeongsang Province, Yun grew up knowing nothing about the winter sliding sport. Still, as a child Yun always enjoyed running around at the beach, and excelled in many sports at school including soccer, badminton, competitive running and jumping, among others.[4]

Yun moved to Seoul when he was in middle school, and continued playing sports at school hoping to get into a sports university. In 100-metre races, he would ask to start 10 metres back from others his age and still beat other runners. At 1.78-metres in height, he could grab a basketball rim with ease.[5] While playing basketball in high school, Yun's natural athletic ability was noticed by his physical education teacher, Kim Young-tae, who was also serving as one of the officials at the Korea Bobsleigh Skeleton Federation at the time.[4]

Yun attended Korea National Sport University, who had recruited him from his teacher's recommendation.[6]

Career

Yun is known for his exceptional agility and athleticism that en ables him to pick things up so quickly in the sport. Yun is also famous for his Iron Man-like helmet, which makes it appear that the Marvel comic hero is flying full-speed ahead when Yun is on the track.[7]

Yun started skeleton at the age of 18 in early 2012, and after three-month training he won the national championship in September 2012.[8] Yun made his international debut in the 2012–13 season, appearing at the North American Cup Tour. Yun first garnered attention in the 2013–14 season when he was ranked fifth overall at the 2013–14 FIBT Intercontinental Cup Tour. He won gold in the sixth round of the tour in Whistler, Canada on January 5–6, 2014, becoming the first Korean skeleton slider to finish on top of the podium at an international event.[3]

Yun finished his first Olympic competition with a disappointing 16th place in Sochi. Yun, however, flourished in the 2014–15 season under the tutelage of British sled specialist Richard Bromley, a co-founder of Bromley Sports, one of the world’s top sled manufacturing companies.[9] Yun recorded his first World Cup podium with a bronze at Calgary in December 2014. In the overall 2014–15 World Cup rankings, Yun finished his rookie season in sixth place with one silver and two bronze.

In the 2015–16 season, Yun earned his first World Cup gold medal in the seventh round in St. Moritz, along with a silver at the 2016 IBSF World Championships in Igls, finishing the season's overall World Cup rankings in second place with one gold, three silver and two bronze.

In the 2016–17 season, Yun earned his second World Cup gold medal in the first round in Whistler. He finished the season's overall World Cup rankings in second place with one gold, three silver and two bronze.

Yun won the overall 2017–18 World Cup, becoming the first Asian athlete to ever win the overall title in the Skeleton World Cup. Despite opting to miss the World Cup finale in Königssee, he managed to score a total of 1,545 points from five wins and two silver medals, giving him enough to win the overall standings ahead of Axel Jungk (1,507 points) and Tomass Dukurs (1,464).[10]

At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Yun captured a gold medal, becoming the first athlete from outside Europe and North America to win an Olympic sliding medal, and the first athlete from South Korea to win a Winter Olympic medal in a non-ice skating event.[11] His four-run time of 3 minutes, 20.55 seconds was 1.63 seconds ahead of silver medalist Nikita Tregubov of Russia. It was the biggest victory margin in Olympic skeleton, topping 1948, when Italy’s Nino Bibbia topped Jack Heaton of the United States by 1.4 seconds in a six-heat race.[12]

Results

World Cup

Overall standings

2014—15 2015—16 2016—17 2017—18
Races Points Position Races Points Position Races Points Position Races Points Position
7/812186th8/815752nd8/816232nd7/815451st

Race victories (7)

No. Season Round Date Location Margin Runner(s)-up
1 2015–167February 5, 2016Switzerland St. Moritz, Switzerland0.07Latvia Martins Dukurs, Latvia Tomass Dukurs
2 2016–171December 3, 2016Canada Whistler, Canada0.12Russia Alexander Tretiakov
3 2017–182November 18, 2017United States Park City, USA0.63Latvia Martins Dukurs
4 3November 25, 2017Canada Whistler, Canada0.75Russia Nikita Tregubov
5 4December 8, 2017Germany Winterberg, Germany0.06Latvia Martins Dukurs
6 6January 5, 2018Germany Altenberg, Germany0.39Russia Alexander Tretiakov
7 7January 12, 2018Switzerland St. Moritz, Switzerland0.87Germany Axel Jungk

References

  1. ↑ Chung, Jane; Kim, Soyoung (February 18, 2018). "Korean 'Iron Man' Yun recalls pain to gain". Reuters. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Athlete information: Sungbin YUN". International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  3. 1 2 "Yun Sung-bin - South Korea". SOOC. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  4. 1 2 Lee, Claire (February 16, 2018). South Korea’s ‘Iron Man’ Yun Sung-bin wins historic gold in men’s skeleton. The Korea Herald . Retrieved March 6, 2018.
  5. ↑ Vanderklippe, Nathan; Yoo, Cynthia (February 16, 2018). "Skeleton Olympic champion Yun Sung-bin blesses South Korea with a moment of national euphoria". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
  6. ↑ Joo, Kyung-don (February 16, 2018). "Yun Sung-bin: 1st Asian to win medal in skeleton". Yonhap. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
  7. ↑ Parker, Ryan (February 16, 2018). Jon Favreau's a Fan of "Iron Man" Olympic Racer Yun Sung-Bin. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  8. ↑ Park, Min-young (February 13, 2013). 스켈레톤 윤성빈, 질주본능 터진다. Hankook Ilbo (in Korean). Archived from the original on February 22, 2014.
  9. ↑ Kim, Ji-han (November 10, 2017). Foreign coaches give sliding teams a push. JoongAng Ilbo. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
  10. ↑ Sungbin Yun wins his first ever overall World Cup title in skeleton. International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation. January 19, 2018. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
  11. ↑ Winter Olympics: South Korea's Yun Sung-bin wins gold in men's skeleton in Pyeongchang. BBC. February 16, 2018. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
  12. ↑ "Yun Sungbin Has Won South Korea's First Olympic Skeleton Gold". The Times. Associated Press. February 16, 2018. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
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