Han Pil-hwa

Han Pil-hwa
nation	North Korea
birthday	January 21, 1942
place of birth	Namp'o ,  North Korea
size	170 cm
Weight	61 kg
Career
National squad	since 1963
status	resigned
Medal table
Olympic medals 0 × 1 × 0 ×
winter Olympics silver 1964 Innsbruck 3000 m
last change: February 20, 2011

Korean spelling
Chosŏn'gŭl	한필 화
Hancha	韓 弼 花
Revised Romanization	Han Pil-hwa
McCune- Reischauer	Han P'ilhwa
See also : Korean name

Han Pil-hwa (born January 21, 1942 in Chinnampo , Heian-nandō in Chōsen , former Japanese Empire , now North Korea ) is a former North Korean speed skater .

Han joined the world championships in 1963 in Japan Karuizawa for the first time internationally in appearance. Over 500 m, she was able to take fourth place there, twelfth in the overall standings. The following year she took part in the Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck . Started in the last pair over 3000 m, she was surprisingly able to reach the intermediate times of the leader Lydia Skolikowa . In the second half she fell back a bit, but in the end she won the silver medal, at the same time as Walentina Stenina . This made her the first North Korean female speed skater to win an Olympic medal.

As with many North Korean athletes, their international careers have been marked by many periods of absence. Nevertheless, she was able to take part in five world championships and in 1965 achieved fifth place.

After finishing her career, Han worked as a trainer.

In 1998 she was elected to the North Korean Parliament, but continued to work for the North Korean Speed ​​Skating Association.

Personal bests

route	time	date	place
500 m	46.80 s	February 21, 1963	Karuizawa
1000 m	1: 33.79 min	3rd February 1972	Sapporo
1500 m	2: 25.64 min	3rd February 1972	Sapporo
3000 m	5: 07.24 min	3rd February 1972	Sapporo

Web links

• Han Pil-hwa in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Statistics on the speed skating news page

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Korean. Han is the family name here, Pil-hwa is the first name.