Former Lawmaker Lee Yong Returns as Head Coach of Bobsleigh and Skeleton National Team

Former lawmaker Lee Yong (48) is returning as the head coach of the national bobsleigh and skeleton teams.

According to the Korea Bobsleigh Skeleton Federation, Lee applied through an open recruitment for coaches, passed the document and interview evaluations by the federation's performance improvement committee last month, and received approval from the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee on the 1st.

Lee, who entered politics after being elected as a proportional representative in the 21st National Assembly election in 2020, is returning to the sliding track after six years.

Lee is a former national luge athlete who competed in the 1998 Nagano and 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

He took the helm of the bobsleigh and skeleton national teams in 2011 as the successor to coach Kang Kwang-bae, and led skeleton athlete Yun Sung-bin to a gold medal and the bobsleigh four-man team to a silver medal at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

After becoming a lawmaker, he served as the chief of staff for presidential candidate Yoon Suk Yeol during the 2022 presidential election.

He subsequently ran in the 2024 general election and this year's by-election in Hanam, Gyeonggi Province, but was defeated.

Korean sliding sports have failed to harvest medals on the Olympic stage since the PyeongChang Games.

At the 2026 Milano Cortina Games, they had to settle for top-ten finishes by men's skeleton athlete Jung Seung-ki (10th, Gangwon State Office) and the bobsleigh four-man team led by Kim Jin-su (Gangwon State Office) (8th).
 
(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.