Lee won the gold medal in the men's lightweight division at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

He won his Olympic gold medal by way of Ippon against Vitaly Makarov of Russia with 9 seconds left.

He was leading in the bout anyway, but had secured the win when he went in for Drop Seoi Nage and combined it with Kouchi gari to deliver Makarov onto his back with force.

[7] He lost to Wang Ki-chun in the qualifications for the 2007 World Championships in Rio de Janeiro and 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

[14] In 2018, Lee married South Korean table tennis player Yun Ji-Hye[15] and have a daughter together.