Lee Ailesa

Lee Ailesa ( Korean 이에리사 ; born August 15, 1954 in Seoul ) is a former South Korean table tennis player . She was team world champion with Korea in 1973 .

Career in Korea

Lee Ailesa started playing table tennis when she was 10 years old. She made rapid progress and later won the South Korean national championship seven times in a row. She received international attention when she won the singles, doubles and team titles at the 1970 Asian Youth Championships. She took part in world championships four times . She always won a medal with the Korean team: 1971 bronze, 1973 gold and 1975 and 1977 silver. In 1972 she won the International Championships in Switzerland. In between she earned her living as a trainer.

A shoulder injury forced her to take a break in 1976.

Germany

In 1980 she came to Germany against her parents' wishes. The contact was arranged by the soccer player Bum Kun Cha, who was playing in Frankfurt at the time . She joined the Bundesliga club FTG Frankfurt . She stayed here for two years and achieved a positive score of 65: 2 and 64: 4. In 1982 she returned to Korea. Renewed complaints with the shoulder forced her to end her career in competitive sports.

Functionary in Korea

In 1981 Lee Ailesa was one of the founders of the Korean Women's Sports Association (WSA) . Later she started a coaching career. She looked after the Korean women's team at the Olympic Games from 1984 to 2004.

In 2006 she was awarded the Women and Sport Trophy by the International Olympic Committee IOC .

Private

Lee Ailesa's father worked first as a civil servant, then as a building contractor. She has three brothers and four sisters. After graduating from high school, she worked at a bank.

Results from the ITTF database

Association	event	year	place	country	singles	Double	Mixed	team
COR	Asian Championship TTFA	1970	Nagoya	JPN		Semifinals		1
COR	Asian Games	1974	Tehran	IRI	last 16	Semifinals	Semifinals	2
COR	Asian Youth Champ. TTFA Juniors	1970	Nagoya	JPN	gold			1
COR	Asian Youth Champ. TTFA Juniors	1970	Nagoya	JPN	gold
COR	Asian Youth Champ. TTFA Juniors	1970	Nagoya	JPN	gold
COR	World Championship	1977	Birmingham	CLOSELY	last 16	last 16	no participants	2
COR	World Championship	1975	Calcutta	IND	last 64	last 32	last 64	2
COR	World Championship	1973	Sarajevo	YUG	last 64	Quarter finals	last 16	1
COR	World Championship	1971	Nagoya	JPN	last 32	last 32	last 64	3

philately

To win the title in the women's team competition at the 1973 World Table Tennis Championships , the post office in South Korea issued a 10 won postage stamp on May 23, 1973 ( Michel catalog no. 872). The circulation of the stamp was 1,500,000 - printed on counter sheets of 25.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Yearbook 2003/2004 (accessed on January 17, 2016)
2. ↑ DTS magazine , 1980/21 page 5
3. ↑ Lee Ailesa Results from the ITTF database on ittf.com (accessed September 11, 2011)

literature

• Harald Stenger, Alfred Harder: If only it weren't for the homesickness for Korea ... , DTS magazine , 1981/3, pages 63–65
• Manfred Schäfer: Lee Ailesa back to Korea , DTS magazine , 1982/20 pages 6 + 10
• Svend Frandsen: Lee Ailesa Captures Prestigious IOC Award , (engl.)

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Korean. Lee is the family name here, Ailesa is the first name.