Lee Sang-hwa smiles with a trophy after winning the 500-m race at the ISU World Cup Final in Heerenveen, Netherlands, on Sunday. /AP-Newsis

Lee Sang-hwa, reigning Olympic champion in women's 500-m speed skating, became overall champion in the same distance at the ISU Speed Skating World Cup.

She finished first in the second 500-m race with a time of 37.77 seconds at the final World Cup event in Heerenveen, Netherlands, on Sunday, edging out China's Wang Beixing by just 0.01 second.

Lee finished third in the first race on Friday with 37.82 seconds, behind Germany's Jenny Wolf and Wang, who clocked 37.77 and 37.81, respectively. By winning the second race in Heerenveen, Lee set a remarkable record of winning nine out of the 10 races she entered this season.

Lee earned 800 World Cup points by sweeping eight races in the first four World Cup events. She then received 105 points for the third-place finish at the final event and 150 points for the first-place finish.

With a combined total of 1,055 points, Lee became the overall champion in the women's 500 m with a comfortable lead over runner-up Wolf, who has 851 points.

ISU quantifies the performance of each skater at eight World Cup events and one Final, and ranks the skaters for each distance.

Lee is now a "triple crown" athlete, having also won gold medals at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and 2012 World Championships.

Her dominance this season brightens her prospects at the 2014 Winter Olympics and also at the World Championships, which start in Sochi on March 21.