An Min-seok on China's biased judgment controversy: "The core reason is Samsung... After the political scandal, they withdrew from sports, leaving a vacuum in the ice skating world"

An Min-seok "Supporting the Skating Federation to Raise Our Athletes to an International Level"
Opposition "Is Samsung to Blame for China's Biased Judging Too?"

Ahn Min-seok, member of the Democratic Party of Korea.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] Amid the growing controversy over the 'biased judgment' in short track speed skating at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Ahn Min-seok, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea and former chairman of the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, claimed on the 9th, "Now that Samsung is gone, such unfair and biased judgments against our athletes were already predictable."

Ahn appeared on CBS Radio's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' that day and said, "(Our country) still lacks a sports diplomacy system and expert development. Samsung used to fill that gap."

He added, "Why would China host the Olympics? Is it because they have nothing else to do? They want to showcase themselves as the world's number one power through the Olympics by promoting their Sinocentrism," and said, "It was already expected that China would disqualify athletes from other countries unfairly through such absurd biased judgments and favor their own athletes to win gold medals."

Hwang Daeheon of the Korean short track speed skating national team is looking at the scoreboard after finishing the men's 1000m short track semifinal heat 1 at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing, China, on the afternoon of the 7th, the third day of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics opening. Hwang was disqualified due to a questionable referee decision in this race, failing to advance to the final. [Image source=Yonhap News]

He continued, "I want to talk about Samsung as the core reason why this happened." He said, "Most of the medals Korea has won at the Winter Olympics are in ice skating events, especially short track," and added, "Samsung supported the Korea Skating Union with about 20 to 30 billion KRW over 20 years since 1997, playing a role in raising our athletes to an international level."

Ahn pointed out, "After the political scandal, Samsung withdrew from sports, and for the past 4 to 5 years, the Korean skating community has faced a vacuum," and said, "With insufficient support from the union for the athletes, their performance inevitably declined. Talented coaches like Kim Sun-tae (Chinese coach) had no prospects domestically and thus left overseas."

In response, Yang Jun-woo, spokesperson for the People Power Party, shared an article related to Ahn on Facebook and criticized, "People who have never even made a single pen casually twist the arms of businesspeople."

Yang said, "Now even China's biased judgment is Samsung's fault?" and added, "If you look closely, the Democratic Party is stricter in disciplining companies than Chun Doo-hwan." He continued, "The Democratic Party, filled with politicians who treat companies like piggy banks, ironically brings a candidate with the slogan 'competent in the economy,' which is laughable."

Earlier, Hwang Dae-heon (Gangwon Province Office) and Lee Jun-seo (Korea National Sport University) of the Korean short track team were disqualified under suspicious rulings despite finishing first and second in their heats in the men's 1000m semifinals at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics held on the 7th at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing, China. Both athletes were penalized and disqualified for late lane changes, and ultimately, Chinese athletes who finished third in their heats advanced to the finals.

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