Mo Tae-bum

Mo Tae-bum, born on 15 February 1989 in Seoul, is a South Korean speed skater who is the 2010 Olympic champion and the 2012 and 2013 world champion in the 500 metres. He started skating in the third grade, won the 500 and 1500 metre races at the 2006 World Junior Championships in Erfurt, and won the 1000 and 1500 metre events at the 2009 Winter Universiade. Ranked only fourteenth in the world at 500 metres before the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, he won the 500 metre gold medal on his twenty-first birthday and became the first Korean to win an Olympic gold medal in a long track speed skating event. He also took silver in the 1000 metres, 0.18 seconds behind Shani Davis, and finished fifth in the 1500 metres. His fellow skater and close friend Lee Seung-hoon won a gold and a silver medal at the same Games, and President Lee Myung-bak congratulated Mo as a proud treasure who had rewritten South Korean speed skating history.