Lexington High’s Paul T. Kim scored two gold medals this year for his Russian language proficiency.

Kim won his first gold medal in the National Russian Essay Contest, an annual competition organized by the American Council of Teachers of Russian.

Kim won his second gold medal of the year at the Olympiada of Spoken Russian. Not only is he the first LHS student to compete in this event, he is the first student from South Carolina to do so.

Also sponsored by the American Council of Teachers of Russian, this competition challenges students to demonstrate their mastery of the Russian language.

For the Olympiada of Spoken Russian, Kim competed in the North Carolina region, impressing the judges by reciting Russian poetry, engaging in a conversation in Russian, and demonstrating his knowledge of Russian culture, history and geography.

Kim competed as a first-year student after studying Russian I in fall of 2017.