*This content was translated by AI.
With the opening of the 2026 Milan-Cortina D'Ampezzo Winter Olympics just around the corner, "Cabbage Boy" Lee Sang-ho (31, Nexen) ran gold. He won the last World Cup just before the Olympics, giving the green light to win a medal for the first time in eight years.
Lee Sang-ho beat veteran Roland Fischnaller (33, Italy) in the final of the men's parallel Alpine competition at the 2025-2026 International Ski Federation (FIS) Snowboard World Cup in Logla, Slovenia on the 31st (Korea time).
This gold medal is Lee Sang-ho's fourth career World Cup victory and an emotional victory in about a year and 10 months since the Winterberg Games in Germany in March 2024.
The final was a breathtaking game. Lee Sang-ho, who reached the final tournament in second place in the preliminary round, settled in the final with a breakthrough. He faced Fischnaller, the top-ranked player in the preliminary round, who has won three times this season.
Lee Sang-ho, who trailed by 0.16 seconds in the first section of the game, showed a scary background. The two players crossed the finish line almost at the same time, and it was hard to tell the winner with the naked eye.
The video review confirmed that Lee Sang-ho's left fingertips were slightly ahead of Fischnaller, confirming a dramatic victory. FIS described this as "Lee Sang-ho won by a fingertip, producing the season's fiercest match."
After the game, Lee Sang-ho said through FIS, "This season seemed to have brought together the strongest players ever. So I knew I had to pour more than 100% into it, he said. "I was very nervous, but I'm proud that I did it in the end."
Lee Sang-ho then said, "I really needed to win before the Olympics. In fact, the beginning of this season was like the worst season for me," he confessed.
In addition, Lee Sang-ho said, "I've used a lot of equipment for the Olympics. "My only goal this season was the Olympics," he said, expressing confidence, "I finally did it right before the Olympics."
Lee Sang-ho was nicknamed "cabbage boy" because of an anecdote that he grew up training in a cabbage field in Jeongseon-gun, Gangwon-do. She became the first Korean medalist in snow events by winning a silver medal at the 2018 PyeongChang competition, and finished fifth in the 2022 Beijing competition by 0.01 seconds in the quarterfinals.
Lee Sang-ho, who has been desperate, has been struggling to rehabilitate after overcoming bad injury such as undergoing surgery for a fractured left wrist early last year. Lee Sang-ho, who has elevated his condition to the highest by winning the title at this year's event after ranking fourth at the World Cup in Austria on the 24th of last month, is now aiming for his third Olympic stage.
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*This content was translated by AI.
