Eucine Lee is a 17-year-old speed skater residing in Bellevue, Washington who is competing in the 3000m relay in the 2022 Winter Olympics. She is the youngest women’s speed skating team member in over 20 years, making her very talented. Lee was born in South Korea where she first started figure skating with her sister while her brother did speed skating. When she moved to Bellevue, she began speed skating and went on to win Silver Medalist in the 2016 USA Long Track Championship, and in 2020, she won the Short Track Development Athlete of the Year award. In her youth, she tried sports different from skating, including ballet and rhythmic gymnastics, doing gymnastics competitively for three years. In 2020, she had a string of continuous injuries which prevented her from performing at her best at AmCup2 and competing at AmCup3. This impeded her from joining the Junior World team, but this pushed Lee to work harder, which landed her the fifth spot for the Olympic team during the trials in Salt Lake City in 2021. Lee has said, “Racing in Utah has been my favorite place to race so far, because the ice makes me feel like I’m skating my fastest. It’s also been the best place for me because I’ve set all of my personal records there.” During the trials, she was relatively unknown, especially since she was not on the national team.
During the semifinals on Wednesday, Lee was the alternate for the race. The team finished fourth out of four in the race and will go into Final B as they did not qualify for Final A. The U.S. team has not medaled in the event since 2010. Final B for the women’s 3000m speed skating relay will be on Feb. 13 at 3:35 a.m. PST.
