(Olympics) Six-time Olympian Lee Chae-won finishes 61st in cross-country skiing event

▲ South Korean cross-country skier Lee Chae-won competes in the women's 7.5km+7.5km skiathlon event at the Beijing Winter Olympics at Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre in Zhangjiakou, northwest of Beijing, on Feb. 5, 2022. (Yonhap)

▲ South Korean cross-country skier Lee Chae-won competes in the women's 7.5km+7.5km skiathlon event at the Beijing Winter Olympics at Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre in Zhangjiakou, northwest of Beijing, on Feb. 5, 2022. (Yonhap)

(Olympics) S Korea-cross-country skiing

(Olympics) Six-time Olympian Lee Chae-won finishes 61st in cross-country skiing event

By Yoo Jee-ho

BEIJING, Feb. 5 (Yonhap) -- South Korean veteran cross-country skier Lee Chae-won finished near the bottom in the first event of her sixth Winter Olympics on Saturday.

Lee ranked 61st among 62 who finished the race in the women's 7.5km+7.5km skiathlon at the Beijing Winter Olympics. At Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre in Zhangjiakou, some 180 kilometers northwest of Beijing, Lee came in at 55:52.6.

Three skiers did not finish the race, including South Korea's Han Dasom.

Lee has tied the record for most Olympic appearances by a South Korean athlete, Winter or Summer, with six. Two months shy of her 41st birthday, Lee is also the oldest South Korean athlete at Beijing 2022.

Therese Johaug of Norway grabbed the gold medal, the very first awarded at these Winter Games, with a time of 44:13.7.

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