Korea now has some new sport’s heroes to celebrate after their short track skaters beat arch rival, American Apolo Anton Ohno:
Jin Sun-yu and Choi Eun-kyung swept the top two spots in the women’s 1,500-meter while Ahn Hyun-soo and Lee Ho-suk, whose combination earned them a gold and silver in the men’s 1,500-meter, followed suit in the 1,000-meter race.
Ahn, 21, crossed the line first at 1 minute, 26.739 seconds for a new Olympic record, holding off teammate Lee and American archrival Apolo Anton Ohno, who placed third.
He became the first Korean male multi-gold medallist in the Winter Games in 14 years since another short track skater, Kim Ki-hoon, won two gold medals in Albertville, France, in 1992.
Ohno had this to say in defeat:
Ohno threw up his hands in a similar move in Salt Lake City in 2002, where he claimed a controversial gold medal in the 1,000-meter over South Korean Kim Dong-sung. However, it had different meaning this time.
According to Associated Press, “That was like a `Wow, couldn’t believe it,’’’ Ohno explained after the race, saying he had no place to get ahead between the two Korean competitors. “It was … like, `Man, there was no room to move.’ That was kind of my emotion.’’
“There were a couple of opportunities for me to move up on Ahn,’’ he went on to say. “They were just skating so tight and any type of move would have probably resulted in disqualification. I didn’t want to risk it.’’
I have maintained for a long time that Ohno has been treated unfairly by the Korean media because in both victory and defeat he has demonstrated good sportsmanship and his third place finish in this year’s Olympics has been no different. Notice he didn’t make any accusations or excuses and in the above picture he can be seen shaking the hands of the Korean skaters and congratulating them.
I have never seen Ohno gloat when he has won past races over the Koreans, but as the Party Pooper has pointed out the Korean media is quick to gloat when Ohno loses. I wonder if the Korean media will grant Ohno media access this time since he lost? Last October Ohno won two golds at a competition held in Korea and he wanted to hold a news conference to set the record straight about how he is portrayed in Korea and he was denied. He had this to say at the time:
There was nothing hostile about the fans, they were just happy watching the races,” said Ohno, who regained the world No. 1 ranking from local skater Ahn Hyun-soo on Sunday with golds in the 1,000 and 3,000 finals.
Ohno regretted being denied any opportunity to hold a news conference in Seoul last week to show people another side to his character, which he figures has been largely demonized in the local media.
“A lot of media was shut away. I’m not sure why,” he said. Maybe “certain people wanted to keep that false image.”
I suspect Ohno probably will still be demonized in the Korean media, but maybe next time when he comes to Korea he won’t have to be escorted by riot police the minute he steps off the plane like he did this last October.
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