Lee Sang-hwa of Korea, left, and Nao Kodaira of Japan celebrate together after finishing the women's 500 meters at the PyeongChang Olympics on Feb. 18, 2018. Korea Times file



Two rival speed skaters from South Korea and Japan were honored Sunday for their display of friendship in the heat of the Olympic competition.



Lee Sang-hwa of South Korea and Nao Kodaira of Japan received the Korea-Japan Friendship Award, presented by the PyeongChang Winter Olympics Commemorative Foundation in Seoul.



Kodaira beat Lee for the gold medal in the women's 500 meters at PyeongChang 2018 last February, setting an Olympic record with 36.94 seconds and denying the South Korean her third straight Olympic title. As Lee, overcome with emotions after taking silver, circled the ice waving the national flag, Kodaira approached Lee and embraced her rival in consolation.



The two Olympic champions sharing the victory lap before an equally emotional crowd became one of the lasting images of the first Winter Olympics held on South Korean soil.



Lee, who still holds the world record in the 500m with 36.36 seconds, thanked Kodaira for inspiring her.



"I thought about retiring because of injuries after the Sochi Olympics (in 2014) but then Nao came along and started pushing me," Lee said at the ceremony. "Thanks to Nao, I was able to keep going. It's an honor to have competed at a high level for so long next to a friend like this. I hope we'll remain close for a long time."



There wasn't much of a rivalry earlier in their careers. When Lee won her first Olympic gold in Vancouver in 2010 at age 20, Kodaira finished 12th. Four years later in Sochi, Lee defended her gold medal, and Kodaira remained an afterthought in fifth place.



Kodaira, three years older than Lee, started making noise around 2017. She began sweeping up every international title in the 500m, while Lee struggled with assorted injuries. Kodaira won both the world sprint title and the world single distance title in the 500m in 2017 and carried the momentum right into the Olympics in 2018.



Kodaira, who has credited training in the Netherlands for aiding her late surge, said she and Lee had always been so close that what they did after their race in PyeongChang was hardly anything special.



"After the Olympics, Lee sent me a message, saying we'd made it this far because of each other," Kodaira said. "I was really touched by that. I was able to grow further as a skater because of her."



Ryu Seung-min, director of the foundation, said the two skaters' friendship is the perfect epitome of the Olympic spirit and added, "I hope South Korea and Japan will actively engage in sports exchanges and other civilian cooperation." (Yonhap)

