PYEONGCHANG, South Korea -- South Korean alpine snowboarder Lee Sang-ho said Friday he will try to meet home fans' expectations at the upcoming Winter Olympics.

Lee is one of South Korea's medal hopefuls at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. He had impressive results earlier this year, winning two gold medals at the Asian Winter Games in February. The 22-year-old also became the first South Korean to win an International Ski Federation World Cup silver medal in March after finishing second at an event in Turkey.

At the World Championships, Lee finished fifth in the men's parallel giant slalom competition. 

"I'm getting a lot of energy from fans," Lee said to reporters in PyeongChang, 180 kilometers east of Seoul. "I will do my best to meet their expectations and earn good results for their warm support."

Earlier this month, Lee topped the PGS competition at the low-tier Europa Cup in Germany, but he failed to keep his winning momentum at the FIS World Cups. He even failed to reach the quarterfinals in the last three World Cups.

"It's pity that I couldn't get good results at the World Cup events, but this is just another step for the Olympics," he said. "I'm feeling good right now, and everything is going as planned." 

Lee said he will try to keep his composure ahead of the Olympics.

"The Olympics are going to be staged in my home country, and also it's my first Winter Games," he said. "But I'm not going to take it too seriously. I will just think that the PyeongChang Games are one of the future Olympics in my career."

Lee will depart for Europe on Sunday to prepare for coming World Cups. He said the whole alpine snowboard national team is training in a good atmosphere.

"I'm not going to rush to get good results at the World Cup events," he said. "I will keep working hard to achieve good results at the Olympics." (Yonhap)