South Korean Olympic speed skating champ Lee Sang-hwa will look to extend an early season winning streak on home ice this week.

Lee is scheduled to compete in the women’s 500-meter races in the second leg of the International Skating Union Speed Skating World Cup, which will open Friday at Taeneung International Skating Rink in Seoul. It’s the first international speed skating competition held on South Korean ice since March 2004, when the same rink hosted the ISU World Single Distance Championships.

There will be two 500 m races, once each on Friday and Saturday.

Lee, who captured her second straight Olympic gold in the 500 m at the Sochi Games in February, is also the world record holder in the distance with a time of 36.36 seconds. In the last World Cup season, Lee won the first seven races that she entered and set three world records in the process.

Last week, Lee captured both of her two 50 m races at the first World Cup event of the season in Obihiro, Japan. In the second of the two races, Lee set a new venue record with a time of 37.92 seconds, bettering the previous mark of 38.03 seconds set by Jenny Wolf of Germany in 2010.

Lee said earlier this week she has been able to stay on top of her game, with no ill after-effects following her second consecutive Olympic gold because she is having fun on the ice.

“I’d already experienced the Winter Olympics in 2010, and there was no feeling of letdown whatsoever after Sochi,” she said. “I am trying to have as much fun as I can.”

Lee admitted she is not in the tip-top shape that helped her win the Olympic gold nine months ago, but she’s working to get back to that point.

“I always feel that I need to improve my start,” Lee added. “My results will depend on how much stamina I can build up.”

Lee once considered undergoing surgery on her wonky left knee and having it drained but said a series of off-ice commitments after the Olympics left her little time to go under the knife.

“I am going to think about (having surgery) again after this season,” she added. “It’s actually not too bad trying to compete while getting it treated.”

Also racing in the 500 m for South Korea will be former short track star Park Seung-hi.

Park won two gold medals in short track at the Sochi Olympics and switched to speed skating in August.

She made the national team less than three months later, and by winning the second 50 m race in Division B last week, Park earned a promotion to Division A for this week.

Former Olympic champions Mo Tae-bum and Lee Seung-hoon will take the ice in the men’s competition for South Korea.

Sven Kramer of the Netherlands headlines the list of 2014 Olympic gold medalists. Kramer won two gold medals in Sochi, including one in the 5,00 m, and won a silver in the 10,000 m. He also has won a slew of world championships in the two long distance events.

Earlier this week, the 28-year-old said he will skip the 10,000 m and will only race in the 1,500 m in Seoul, as he tries to rebuild himself as a middle distance skater. The men’s 5,000 mwill not be contested here. (Yonhap)