Yun Sung-bin

Yun Sung-Bin (Hangul: 윤성빈; born 23 May 1994)[2] is a South 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]

Yun Sung-bin
Yun Sung-bin (2019)
Personal information
Nickname(s)Iron Man[1]
NationalitySouth Korean
Born (1994-05-23) 23 May 1994
Namhae, South Korea
Height1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight76 kg (168 lb)
Sport
CountrySouth Korea
SportSkeleton
Turned pro2011
Medal record
Olympic Games
2018 PyeongchangMen
World Championships
2016 IglsMen
2019 WhistlerMen
Yun Sung-bin
Hangul
윤성빈
Hanja
尹誠彬
Revised RomanizationYun Seongbin
McCune–ReischauerYun Sŏngbin
In this Korean name, the family name is Yun.

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 5–6 January 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

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
2018—19 2019—20
Races Points Position Races Points Position
8/816802nd8/815813rd

Race victories (10)
No. Season Round Date Location Margin Runner(s)-up
1 2015–1675 February 2016 St. Moritz, Switzerland0.07 Martins Dukurs, Tomass Dukurs
2 2016–1713 December 2016 Whistler, Canada0.12 Alexander Tretiakov
3 2017–18218 November 2017 Park City, USA0.63 Martins Dukurs
4 325 November 2017 Whistler, Canada0.75 Nikita Tregubov
5 48 December 2017 Winterberg, Germany0.06 Martins Dukurs
6 65 January 2018 Altenberg, Germany0.39 Alexander Tretiakov
7 712 January 2018 St. Moritz, Switzerland0.87 Axel Jungk
8 2018–19525 January 2019 St. Moritz, Switzerland0.20 Alexander Tretiakov
9 924 February 2019 Calgary, Canada0.06 Alexander Tretiakov
10 2019–2035 January 2020 Winterberg, Germany0.05 Alexander Gassner

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