Speed Skating Controversy
I’m going to open this one by saying that when I back up Ohno, I think of him as an athlete. And athletes are allowed to act like assholes when talking about their sport especially if they’ve had the longevity and success (and by any standards, he’s been successful, if not on the Olympic stage, then the World one) that he’s had. He still rubs people from other countries the wrong way, but at the very least, he likes what he does and continues because it makes him happy. I can’t really hate the guy because he loves his sport.
I’m also not above admitting that I hopped on the bandwagon. I know almost next to nothing of speed skating, unlike say Track and Field and Soccer. I don’t support the Korean team during these sports because of the societal mentality that South Koreans have. I guess it’s out of spite. The unforgiving attitude that South Koreans hold onto their athletes is, at least to me, unacceptable. They shouldn’t have the support of their country rescinded just because they don’t perform to expectations. And what makes the South Korean Short Track Team worse is that they embrace this mentality and expect to win because as a country, they’re the best in the sport. Not completely unjustified, but still a little over the top. I understand that this way of thinking will never die out, or at least persevere for a long time after I’m gone. It just makes me uncomfortable to cheer for a team that, in my mind, acts a little conceited. (Reminds me of how my track coach expected to win All-Cities just because we had a 20 year streak. He’s going to be disappointed this year..)
Now, given all that, Korea should have gotten the Women’s 3000m Gold Medal. That slip-up was not her fault. Even commentators from America, the paradoxically patriotic impartial people they are, said that Korea should have won that race. It may have been a grudge against Korea or a negative bias because they have such a good record, but that Gold should’ve been theirs. The sport of speed skating is more subjective than figure skating with more of an impact on the performance of the athletes. It was an unfair call and it definitely wasn’t warrant for disqualification.
Explore posts in the same categories: OlympicsTags: Korea, Olympics, south, speed skating
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
Yai's Kor 
February 26, 2010 at 8:00 pm
You claim you know nothing about speed skating, then go on to say they shouldn’t have been DQed. If you know nothing about the sport how would you know? Leave the commenting to the people who actually understand the rules
February 26, 2010 at 8:41 pm
Haha wow, really bob, you anonymous fucktard? If a guy throws a punch in a basketball game and the ref calls it a personal foul, anybody’s gonna know that he should be suspended. Just the same if a guy dives in a soccer game at every random tackle when the tackling player takes the ball cleanly and he gets a red card, that’s equally unjustified. You don’t have to be an expert of a sport to know when something’s unfair. And even then I’m allowed whatever the fuck I want to say on my own page and unless you can say something that actually proves me wrong, stop trolling, you lonely idiot.