"Are You Cleaning Your Own Tombstone?"... Chinese Netizens Outraged by Cha Min-gyu's 'This Action' on the Podium

In the men's 500m speed skating event at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Cha Min-kyu (Uijeongbu City Hall), who won the silver medal, was seen making a gesture as if wiping the floor of the podium with his hand before stepping onto it. This action has sparked various unfounded speculations and criticisms from Chinese netizens.
[Photo by Facebook capture]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] Cha Min-kyu (Uijeongbu City Hall), who won the silver medal in the men's 500m speed skating at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, is facing various speculations and criticisms from Chinese netizens over an action he took before stepping onto the podium.

At the men's 500m speed skating medal ceremony held on the 12th at the Beijing National Speed Skating Oval, Cha Min-kyu, upon hearing his name called, made a motion as if wiping the floor of the podium with his hand before stepping onto it. He then raised his right hand to greet the audience.

Chinese netizens interpreted Cha Min-kyu's action as a protest against biased judging and reacted strongly. They compared it to a similar action taken by Canadian athletes who won the bronze medal in the men's 5000m relay short track at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics four years ago. At that time, it was speculated that the Canadian athletes performed this action as a form of protest against the judging of their compatriot athletes competing in other events.

Some netizens criticized on Weibo (China's version of Twitter) with comments such as "Are you wiping your own tombstone?" and "Stop blaming the referees and blame your skills." Another netizen mocked, saying, "Do you think this is curling? If you wipe quickly, you'll slip."

It has not yet been confirmed what meaning Cha Min-kyu intended by making the wiping motion on the podium. Although a Chinese athlete won the gold medal in this event, they competed in a different heat from Cha Min-kyu. Also, there was no judging controversy like in short track.

There is a possibility that this was a protest against the questionable disqualification of Korean athletes who finished their races well in the men's 1000m short track semifinals on the 7th, but without an explanation from Cha himself, it remains speculative at this point.

Meanwhile, Cha Min-kyu recorded a time of 34.39 seconds in the men's 500m speed skating event held at the Beijing National Speed Skating Oval that day, finishing in second place. He won silver medals in two consecutive Olympics, following the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

The gold medal in this event went to Gao Tingyu (China), who set an Olympic record of 34.32 seconds, and the bronze medal went to Wataru Morishige (Japan) with a time of 34.50 seconds.

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