[Olympics] Turn Over the 'Tilted Playing Field'

Will the First Medal Come Tonight... Biggest Underdog is 'Biased Judging'
China Wins Gold After Mixed Relay Judging Controversy Ends... Choi Minjeong Challenges New Record in 500m
Men's 1000m Hwang Daeheon, Lee Junseo, Park Janghyuk Raise Expectations

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The South Korean national team, which participated in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, will challenge for their first medal in short track on the afternoon of the 7th. While there are rosy prospects that they will bring home the first gold medal, there are also contrasting views that even a bronze medal is not guaranteed. The ‘home advantage’ of China, a rival in short track, is a variable. On this day, from 8:30 PM, the women's short track 500m and men's 1000m events will take place. From the quarterfinals to the finals, the winners will be decided that night.

In the women's 500m, ace Choi Min-jeong (Seongnam City Hall) is challenging a new history. The best results in this event are bronze medals by Jeon Yi-kyung in the 1998 Nagano Games and Park Seung-hee in the 2014 Sochi Games. Attention is focused on whether Choi Min-jeong will succeed in the first ‘golden sprint’ in the women's 500m. In the men's 1000m, where South Korea has traditionally been strong, Hwang Dae-heon (Gangwon Province Office), Lee Jun-seo (Korea National Sport University), and Park Jang-hyeok (Sports Toto) are competing. All of them easily passed the preliminaries, raising expectations for medals.

The problem is that the Beijing Capital Indoor Stadium in China, where short track is held, is evaluated as a ‘tilted playing field.’ Concerns that the biggest obstacle affecting South Korea’s short track results will be biased judging rather than the athletes’ condition have already become a reality.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 5th, China won the gold medal in the first short track medal race, the 2000m mixed relay, after a controversial judgment. South Korea experienced the shock of elimination in the preliminaries when Park Jang-hyeok (Sports Toto) fell. China went through hell and heaven. China finished third in the semifinals, a situation where they could have been eliminated from medal contention. However, after about 10 minutes of video review by the referees, they advanced to the finals in second place. The United States and the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) were disqualified.

The reason for the U.S. disqualification was the early entry of a substitute athlete into the race line (blue line). The referees judged that U.S. athlete Ryan Pivirotto obstructed the path of a Chinese athlete. For the ROC, the issue was interference by a non-racing athlete. The Chinese athlete mistook the touch from a Russian athlete as from their own teammate and accelerated.

Article 4b of the International Skating Union (ISU) competition regulations states that ‘lack of touch in a relay or when the referees find it unclear’ is a violation in relay races. Regulation p for mixed relay also states that ‘if a touch is obstructed by another team’s athlete, the exchange must be made after half a lap.’ China made the proper touch only after skating two more laps. Despite clear grounds for disqualification, China was not penalized. The U.S., whose chance to advance to the finals was dashed, forfeited the ‘Final B’ race for 5th to 8th place and packed up. U.S. short track athlete Maame Biney commented, “It was quite an interesting judgment.”

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Concerns that China could gain a host country advantage existed even before the opening. However, seeing even clear disqualification reasons being glossed over deepened the worries of the South Korean team. Short track is a sport where referees’ decisions on disqualifications greatly affect the results. When athletes are conscious of referee judgments, they inevitably have to race cautiously.

Gwak Yoon-gi (Goyang City Hall), the eldest member of the short track team, said, “I watched the semifinals in person and thought three teams (China, ROC, and the U.S.) would be disqualified,” adding, “The video review took so long that I started to think ‘no way,’ but an unacceptable situation occurred.” He continued, “I have never seen a race continue without a proper touch.”

On this day, naturalized athletes Aileen Frisch (Gyeonggi Province Office) and Abakumova Yekaterina (Seokjeong Mark Summit) will compete for the South Korean team in luge and biathlon, respectively. Additionally, Kang Young-seo (Busan City Sports Council) and Kim So-hee (High1) will participate in the women’s alpine skiing giant slalom event.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.