hankyoreh

During the semifinal of the men’s 1,000-meter short track speedskating event, a Chinese athlete can be seen placing his hand on the leg of Korea’s Hwang Dae-heon as he tries to pass. (still from KBS News broadcast)

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is becoming tarnished by unacceptable referee calls. Judging disputes have always occurred in international sports competitions like the Olympics, and it’s no secret that host countries exercise some level of influence to establish a home-field advantage. But this time, things have gone too far.

Koreans have been furious since South Korean athletes Hwang Dae-heon and Lee June-seo were disqualified for “lane penalties” in the men’s 1000-meter short track speedskating semifinals Monday night. They’re not blindly sticking up for the athletes just because they’re Korean. Hwang Dae-heon’s disqualification is especially hard to understand. Hwang overtook two Chinese skaters and took the lead in the race with four laps left to go, not once coming into contact with the Chinese skaters in the process. In fact, footage of the race shows a Chinese skater putting his hand on Hwang’s leg during the race.

The South Korean Olympic team appealed the disqualifications of Hwang and Lee to the International Skating Union (ISU) following the event, and on Tuesday morning held a press conference announcing that it will immediately appeal the referee calls at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Choi Yong-koo, head of support for the short track team who is also an international referee, said, “Referee calls should not dominate the race,” adding that, “when repeated, mistaken referee calls should be considered intentional.”

South Korea isn’t the only country that’s fallen victim to such shenanigans. Athletes from other countries are also officially raising questions about refereeing decisions unduly favorable to China.

After the two South Korean athletes were disqualified from the semifinals, Hungarian skater Shaolin Sandor Liu crossed the finish line first in the men’s 1000-meter short track speedskating finals. However, he was disqualified after video review. Subsequently, Chinese skaters who never crossed the finish line in first place took the gold and silver medals thanks to referee calls that disqualified their competition. The Hungarian Olympic team also filed an appeal with the ISU.

Even earlier, the Chinese team came in third after Hungary and the US during the mixed 2000-meter team relay semifinals on Saturday. However, the US team was subsequently penalized and disqualified, allowing China to move on to the finals and eventually win gold. The referees did not take issue with the fact that the Chinese skaters did not properly tag each other into the race during the semifinals.

True sportsmanship consists of painstaking effort and fair competition, while the promotion of international peace through sports is what makes the Olympic spirit. As the host of this year’s games, China should look inward and ask whether it’s upholding this spirit as it runs the competition.

Words can’t describe the mental anguish South Korean athletes have probably suffered due to unfair judging. Nevertheless, we hope they do their best in the remaining events so that the sweat and tears they shed in the last four years finally bear fruit.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]