Here’s hoping that the Olympics website does not crash as the 9,000 angry emails get sent from South Korea.
Assuming you’ve watched, or even if you haven’t you will hear about it soon, the 3000m short-track speed skating for women’s was tonight. As expected, the South Korean team led, aggressively making their way from third to first. The Chinese women’s team were favored to win (although I don’t know why), but they lagged behind in second despite their early lead.
The reason? Near the final laps during the switch off from one skater to the next, the South Korean speed skater nudged the Chinese speed skater with her skate, pushing the Chinese woman out sideways just a bit, but enough for South Korea to get further ahead.
South Korea won gold – at least, so they thought until the referee disqualified them. It’s kind of sad – I don’t know who’s side I am on since I don’t really know the rules. It’s undeniable that the South Korean skater nudged the Chinese one – but I thought that in short track, this was allowed. I don’t know to what extent it’s allowed though – and perhaps the South Korean skater pushed more than she should have, more than was considered legal.
One thing that’s maddening is that as soon as they crossed the finish line, they grabbed their flag and did a victory lap. It’s so embarrassing when it turns out that they really lost. Not only that, how could they not be aware that the judges were making sure they didn’t do any disqualifying move? Perhaps the skater didn’t know, but with everyone else’s reactions, it’s clear something was wrong. People were staring up at the boards to find out the true results. The coach had to be somewhat aware of it – the skaters too. So really, it’s no excuse to say that they “didn’t know” that they could have been disqualified. The chance was there – they should have erred on the side of caution and not been so…well, in Tagalog the word is mayabang – which roughly translates into arrogant, but I feel the translation doesn’t really capture the essence of the word.
Korea needs to swallow in their pride a little bit – they have big egos, which is fine. But it can be sorrowfully embarrassing when it turns out they’re not the winners.
I’m not hating on Korea mind you, despite the looks of this and the last post. It’s just, they can get me real fired up during the Olympics. And I’m not even complaining for the sake of the Americans – the American women here were just plain lucky and I don’t know if they’re even deserving – I’m just complaining as someone who’s pet peeve is to see people celebrate too early when nothing is factual just yet, and when they think they’re so good that they’re faultless. That’s annoying – no matter who it is, where they’re from, or what ethnicity or gender.
Case in point: I’m not too fond of Julia Mancuso – she reminds me of a skiing version of Serena Williams. And I do not like Serena Williams either.
