[3] On 24 September 1988, the sailing competition was underway at Busan Yachting Center, 325 kilometres (202 mi) from South Korea's capital of Seoul, the main Olympic site.
The wind suddenly picked up, blowing 35 knots (18 m/s; 65 km/h; 40 mph), and the Singapore team's 470 dinghy with Joseph Chan and Siew Shaw Her aboard capsized.
"[9] Many 21st century sources, including Edmonton Journal,[2] BBC Sport,[10] Inside the Games,[11] CBC Sports,[7] The Globe and Mail,[12] Bustle,[13]Smithsonian,[14] India Today,[15] Mental Floss,[16] and Toronto Star,[17] as well as the Canadian Olympic Committee,[18] have peddled as a fact that Lemieux received the Pierre de Coubertin Medal, although the Medal was inaugurated nine years later in 1997.
[21] In CBC Sports video footage from 1988, Lemieux shows the "special price", a small blue trinket box with the Seoul Olympics logo on the hinged lid, and not quite sure what to call it says "it's a jar of some sort.
[2][23] Asked in a 2012 interview if he would rather be talking about the medal he might have won instead of the rescue, Lemieux referred to sailing's lack of a high media profile: "You spend your life working really hard internationally and you get very few accolades.