A gold medal at the Asian Games will be extra memorable if the South Korean soccer team wins because they can avoid mandatory military service:
South Korea’s Lee Seung-woo, left, celebrates with Son Heung-min after scoring in the semifinal football match against Vietnam at the 18th Asian Games in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Wednesday. Korea won 3-1. Yonhap
South Korea’s soccer team is just 90 minutes away from gold at the 2018 Asian Games and that all-important military exemption thanks to a 3-1 win over Vietnam in the semifinal Wednesday.
On Saturday, Son Heung-min and his colleagues will meet either Japan or the United Arab Emirates in the final in Cibinong, south of Jakarta. If the young Taegeuk Warriors win that then the 20-man roster will not have to perform 21 months of military service. [Korea Times]
Considering how Koreans tend to keep embarrassing things like this quiet, I am not surprised how sexual abuse like this was allowed to go on for so long:
Former tennis player Kim Eun-hee speaks during an interview in Seoul on May 29. Kim waived anonymity to reveal how many athletes in South Korea have silently suffered sexual abuse by their coaches.
When Kim Eun-hee was 10 years old, a primary school child with dreams of tennis stardom, her coach raped her for the first time. Then he did it again. And again. And again.
The South Korean was too young to even know what sex was. But she knew she dreaded the repeated orders to come to his room at their training camp, and the pain and humiliation.
“It took me years to realize that it was rape,” Kim said. “He kept raping me for two years. … He told me it was a secret to be kept between him and me.”
Now 27, Kim has spoken to international media about her experiences for the first time, and revealed how female athletes in South Korea have silently suffered sexual abuse by their coaches. (……..)
In a highly competitive society where winning is everything, many young athletes forgo schooling or live away from families to train with their peers and coaches full time, living in a dorm-like environment for years.
The training camp system — akin to models used by communist sporting machines such as China — is credited with helping the South punch well above its weight on the global sporting stage.
But it has proven to be the setting for abuse in several sports — especially of underage athletes whose existence is controlled by their trainers.
“The coach was the king of my world, dictating everything about my daily life from how to exercise to when to sleep and what to eat,” said Kim, adding that he beat her repeatedly as part of “training.”
The coach was eventually dismissed after some parents complained of his “suspicious behavior,” but he was simply moved to another school with no criminal inquiry. Many victims are forced into silence in a world where going public often means the end of any aspirations to stardom.
“This is a community where those who speak out are ostracized and bullied as ‘traitors’ who brought shame to the sport,” said Chung Yong-chul, a sports psychology professor at Sogang University in Seoul.
A 2014 survey commissioned by the Korean Sports & Olympic Committee showed that around 1 in 7 female athletes had experienced sexual abuse in the previous year, but 70 percent of them did not seek help of any kind. [Japan Times]
This maybe South Korea’s most impressive World Cup win since 2002 even though it was ultimately meaningless since they were eliminated from the knockout stage of 16 teams:
South Korean goalkeeper Jo Hyeon-woo (R) makes a stop on Timo Werner of Germany (second from L in green) during their teams’ Group F match at the 2018 FIFA World Cup at Kazan Arena in Kazan, Russia, on June 27, 2018. (Yonhap)
South Korea stunned Germany 2-0 while being eliminated in the group stage at the FIFA World Cup on Wednesday, bringing the defending champions down with them.
South Korea needed to beat Germany by at least two goals and have Mexico defeat Sweden in the other Group F match Wednesday. The Taeguk Warriors took care of their own end at Kazan Arena in Kazan, some 800 kilometers east of Moscow, with Kim Young-gwon and Son Heung-min each scoring in second-half stoppage time. But Sweden made it all moot by beating Mexico 3-0 in Ekaterinburg.
South Korea, which earlier fell to Sweden and Mexico, finished third in Group F with three points, while netting three goals and conceding three. Sweden won the group with six points, beating Mexico, which also had six points, on goal difference.
Germany unceremoniously bowed of the tournament with three points, losing to South Korea in goal difference and becoming the third straight World Cup champions to miss the knockout stage in title defense. [Yonhap]
Soccer legend Diego Maradona is being accused of making a racist gesture towards some Korean fans at the World Cup:
Argentinean football legend Diego Maradona, left, in a stand before the FIFA World Cup 2018 group D preliminary round game between Argentina and Iceland in Moscow on Saturday. EPA
Football legend Diego Maradona’s racist gesture toward young Korean fans is drawing a strong backlash in Korea.
Maradona, 57, has been accused of making a “clearly racist gesture” at the Spartak Stadium on Saturday, after Korean fans shouted and waved at him in joy.
ITV presenter Jacqui Oatley, who was there as part of the broadcaster’s coverage of the game between Argentina and Iceland, claimed on Twitter that Maradona “pulled his eyes to the side in a clearly racist gesture. All of us who saw it are stunned.” [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but interestingly no one caught this on film. However, here is what Maradona said happened:
Responding to the accusation in a Facebook post on Sunday morning, Maradona said: “Today, in the stadium, among so many demonstrations of affection from the people, I was struck by a group of people around a fan who filmed us. “I saw an Asian boy wearing an Argentina T-shirt. I, from afar, tried to tell them how nice it seemed to me that even the Asians cheer for us. And that’s all, guys, come on.” [iNews]
I will let everyone make up their own minds if Maradona had racist intentions or not.
South Korea’s “Garlic Girls” look like they will get a chance to cash in on their Winter Olympic fame by endorsing vacuum cleaners:
Kim Seon-yeong, middle, and Kim Kyeong-ae, right, sweep the ice after Kim Yeong-mi throws the stone during training at Gangneung Curling Center, Feb. 22. / Yonhap
As curling’s growing popularity in the nation is on rise, “Team Kim” (because all five players’ last names are Kim), or the “garlic girls” (because of Uiseong’s specialty crop), are considered the top choice for endorsements for certain manufacturers. The way they sweep the ice, the way they control the stones, they could make perfect commercials _ thought vacuum cleaner makers.
On South Korean electronic appliance manufacturers, from global brands such as Samsung and LG to local competitors like Dayou Winia, Yujin Robot and Dyson, the curling team has made a strong impression. Following the PyeongChang Olympics where the athletes will leave a huge footprint, commercial endorsements featuring them can potentially create a strong marketing effect for whoever hires them. [Korea Times]
I could only imagine what Koreans would be saying if the roles were reversed?:
South Korean snowboarder Lee Sang-Ho recorded one of the closest victories of the Winter Olympics, beating out Slovenia’s Zan Kosir by .01 in the semifnals of the parallel giant slalom event.
But should the result have been the other way around? NBC’s angles of the finish line appeared to show both Kosir’s board and hand crossing the line both well ahead of Lee’s board and hand. (The winner is the first racer who crosses the line with any part of his body.)
And here you thought you’d put bad replay decisions behind you with the end of the NFL season. [Yahoo Sports]
You can read more at the link, but the photo finish shows that Kosir clearly beat Lee. Some how I doubt Slovenians will be giving Lee the treatment that Koreans gave American Apolo Anton Ohno during the 2002 Winter Olympics:
The fan culture also can boil over. Athletes from opposing countries have received death threats. Back in 2002 in Salt Lake City when Apolo Anton Ohno won his controversial gold with Kim Dong-sung disqualified for blocking, a manufacturer made three different editions of toilet paper with his face on. The USOC servers also crashed due to the number of emails complaining about Ohno’s triumph and the USA team withdrew from the following year’s world championship in South Korea through solidarity with Ohno. Later at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the South Koreans paid homage to Kim with their short track celebration after Ahn Jung-whan equalised against the United States. [ESPN]
People are too quick to use the racism word, inappropriate is a more accurate description of this:
Patrick Roest, Jan Blokhuijsen and Sven Kramer of the Netherlands / Reuters
Dutch skater Jan Blokhuijsen has sparked a dog meat controversy at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
At Wednesday’s press conference for the men’s team pursuit speed skating event, in which his team won a bronze medal, Blokhuijsen said, “Please treat dogs better in this country.”
The comment came out of nowhere. When reporters did not have questions, his teammate Sven Kramer asked, “All Japanese (reporters)?” And then Blokhuijsen made the remark before they left the conference.
After the news went viral, many Koreans expressed fury, claiming that it was racist and ignorant of a different culture. Some claimed the case should officially be reported to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
“The IOC should punish him for making that racist statement,” a netizen said.
Another said, “The Korean government should file an official complaint. I think most young people do not eat dog meat anyway. But some still do, because that’s what we used to eat when we were poor and it became a custom.” [Korea Times]
Friendship between top Korean and Japanese female skaters one of the feel-good stories of the Olympics. They cheer each other on, send gifts and keep in touch away from competitions. pic.twitter.com/MWhXwlTskJ
You would think the Kim regime would at least send someone to the Winter Olympics that at least knows how to skate:
He came, he saw, he fell—twice. But what made North Korean athlete Jong Kwang Bom’s abysmal performance at the men’s short track speed skating 500m heat particularly memorable was his attempt to take down his Japanese rival by grabbing his blade.
The seventh and last of Tuesday’s heats featured athletes from South Korea, Japan, the U.S. and North Korea—oddly representative of the four main players involved in the current geopolitical tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Jong, who at 16 was the youngest skater in the heat, fell flat on his chest within a few seconds of the start of the race. While lying on the ice, he extended his arm and grabbed the Japanese speed skater Keita Watanabe’s blade, in what was either a willful attempt to trip the athlete or to force a restart. [Newsweek]
You can read more at the link, but the North Korean was awarded a restart for his efforts and then proceeded to fall again and try to take out the American and Japanese skaters. Oddly this race is a great metaphor for North Korea; a country with little to no talent, instead of trying to compete on the world stage decides to use thug behavior to threaten to take everyone else down with them.
