Hwang Young-cho (born 22 March 1970) is a former South Korean athlete, winner of the marathon race at the 1992 Summer Olympics and 1994 Asian Games.

Hwang Young-cho
Personal information
Born (1970-03-22) 22 March 1970 (age 54)
Samcheok, Gangwon Province, South Korea
Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing  South Korea
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 1992 Barcelona Marathon
Asian Games
Gold medal – first place 1994 Hiroshima Marathon
Asian Championships
Gold medal – first place 1991 Kuala Lumpur 10,000 m
Universiade
Gold medal – first place 1991 Sheffield Marathon
Hwang Young-cho
Hangul
황영조
Hanja
黃永祚
Revised RomanizationHwang Yeong-jo
McCune–ReischauerHwang Yŏngcho
IPA[ɸwa̠ŋ jʌ̹ŋ.t͡ɕo̞]

Career

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Monument to Hwang Young-cho located in front of the Barcelona Olympic Stadium, installed in 2001

Born in Samcheok, South Korea, Hwang was a promising track athlete in his junior years, but after his first marathon in 1991, which he won, he decided to specialize in marathon.

The Barcelona Olympic marathon was only the fourth of his career. He had won two and placed second in his three previous marathons. In Barcelona, Hwang was in the leading pack from the start, but in a slow race, this group still numbered thirty runners at the halfway mark. However, athletes gradually fell off the pace as the second half of the race went on, until at 35 km, only Hwang and Kōichi Morishita from Japan remained. They had quite a memorable struggle, until Hwang broke away at the 40 km mark to win the gold medal.

Hwang raced sparingly after Barcelona, and he retired after injury prevented him from representing South Korea in the 1996 Olympics.

Hwang was depicted on the 2006 Berlin Marathon medal to commemorate his victory in the 1992 Olympic marathon event.

South Koreans' Olympic marathon medals

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Hwang is one of two Koreans to have won the Olympic marathon. The other winner was Sohn Kee-chung. Hwang's contemporary, Lee Bong-Ju won the silver medal in the marathon at the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta, and Nam Sung-yong won the bronze medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin at the same race that Sohn Kee-chung won.

Achievements

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See also

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  • Hwang Young-cho at World Athletics 
  • Hwang Young-cho at Olympics.com 
  • Hwang Young-cho at Olympedia 
  • Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Hwang Yeong-Jo (황 영조, Hwang Young-Cho)". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2011-07-14.
  • databaseOlympics