Although Lee's parents worked together, spent all savings and even sold paddy fields in a countryside to support their children, that was not enough to cover all.

[4] However, Lee's sister eventually gave up due to the financial situation and tried to seek her future in other sport genres that cost less money for training such as inline skating and wakeboarding.

Lee won the short track World Cup in the 2009–2010 season, and got gold in the 1000m and 1500m at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, and another silver in the 5000m relay.

This turned out to be not true, and Lee admitted that his coach forced him to pull out so that he could give teammate Kwak Yoon-Gy a chance to win a medal.

[10][11] Lee joined the national team again in the 2011–2012 season and won the bronze medal in the 5000m relay at the World Championships.

[12][13] After failing to gain selection for the Korean short track team ahead of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, he switched to speed skating in an attempt to qualify for the event.

He made the same switch in August 2017 to try and gain selection for the national speed skating team ahead of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.