제 13 호 Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics with Controversial Short Track Refereeing
Kicker: WORLD (Olympics)
Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics with Controversial Short Track Refereeing
By Seo-Won Hong, Reporter
The Beijing Winter Olympics were held for 17 days from February 4th to 20th. The Beijing Winter Olympics caused controversy at the opening ceremony when Chinese minorities dressed in hanbok, a traditional Korean costume, appeared. The Beijing Winter Olympics ended with a lot of controversy in various Olympic sports events. Among the controversies at the Beijing Winter Olympics, the most controversial case was the short track speed skating decision. After the disqualification of the men's 1,000m short track speed skating, Korean people became very interested in the controversy over fairness and equity, the spirit of the Olympics. Through this article, I will take a closer look at the controversy over the disqualification of Korean players in the men's 1,000m semifinals and explain the actions taken in Korea later. Furthermore, I will introduce the controversy over the judgment that took place in the previous Olympics and the attitude we will think about when we look at the Olympics.
The Background of the Controversy over the Short Track Skating Match and the Later Korean Team's Actions
Semifinals of the men’s 1000m short track speed skating (Yonhap)
On February 7, the men's 1,000m short track speed skating semifinals at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics were held at Beijing Capital Indoor Stadium in China. In the semifinals, South Korea's Hwang Dae-heon and Lee Joon-seo crossed the finish line in first and second place, respectively. However, since then, they have been penalized for cheating on a late lane change. On behalf of them, Chinese players, who were ranked third in the group, advanced to the finals. After the type of competition, the Korean team protested to the chairman of the short track speed skating referee and sent a protest to the International Skating Union (ISU) and International Olympic Committee (IOC). ISU announced in a statement on February 8th that they could not accept protests related to the decision made in the men's 1,000m short track speed skating semifinals at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. As the controversy grew at the time, the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee held an emergency press conference on the 8th, the day after the match. The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee has protested the decision and said they will file a complaint with Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). However, on the 20th, the last day of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee decided not to file a complaint with the CAS over the controversy over the biased short track speed skating decision at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. In other words, the plan to file a CAS complaint for short track judgment was withdrawn. The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee judged that it had already obtained all necessary measures in the process of preparing for the complaint. Lee Ki-heung, chairman of the Korea Sports Council, clearly raised the issue with the chairman of the IOC and ISU at the time. After the controversial short track speed skating match, the referee changed during the women's 1,500m and 3,000m events. He also said, “The controversial men's 1,000m match is not the final, but the semifinals, so even if we win the complaint, it will not be profitable.” The withdrawal of the CAS complaint plan can be seen as a consideration of the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics in Gangwon-do two years later. Gangwon-do, which received full support from the IOC, succeeded in hosting the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics in January 2020. It has even proposed a decentralized hosting with North Korea at the competition, attended by 3,000 youth athletes from more than 80 countries. Chairman Lee explained, “There was an opinion that it was not desirable to push ahead with the complaint ahead of the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics.”
Another Controversy over the Decision of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics
Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China, who had been ranked first in the short program, won the gold medal with a total of 155.47 points with 78.61 technical points and 76.86 artistic points despite consecutive mistakes unlike the previous day.
Since then, controversy over the decision has been raised. Not only mistakes during the game, but also the particularly high score of referee Hwang Feng of China, one of the referees at the time, became the center of controversy. Chinese figure skating referee Hwang Feng, who was disciplined for being biased during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, was controversial as he was the referee of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Judge Hwang Feng was suspended for one year after he was found to have been biased for Chinese athletes in the figure skating pair event at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics ended with a lot of controversy in the judgment.
What is the CAS?
It is an organization founded by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to quickly and fairly judge possible disputes in international sports events. The organization will hold referees over disputes over judgment, drug doping, and athletes' qualifications at various international competitions, including the Olympics. There may be cases where the judgment of the referee is made unfairly. Therefore, CAS was created to undermine the purity of sports games and correct the results of the violation of the “fairness of referees,” which is the basis for the existence of sports games.
Case of Filing a Lawsuit against CAS in Korea
The most recent case in which Korea filed a complaint with the CAS during the Olympics was the 2004 Athens Olympics gymnast Yang Tae-young case. Yang Tae-young scored 57.774 points in the men's individual gymnastics and lost 0.049 points to Paul Ham (USA), who scored 57.823 points, to win the bronze medal. However, Yang Tae-young failed to win the gold medal because the referee judged the postponement of 0.2 points at Parallel bars, an individual event. At that time, one of the referees of mechanical gymnastics technology was found to be a leader and referee for years in Ham's hometown. As the controversy over the decision grew, the International Gymnastics Federation also admitted through its own analysis that Yang Tae-young failed to win the gold medal for losing 0.1 points due to a misjudgment and even disciplined the referee and technical referee. The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee filed a complaint with the CAS, but at the time, the CAS ruled that “the result of the misjudgment due to the referee's mistake, not the match-fixing, is not subject to reversal.”
The Olympics is a sports festival for people around the world. The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics for a month and athletes brought us interest, cheer, and joy. Although there were questions of fairness, the Beijing Winter Olympics brought us hope and inspiration. However, there have been several criticisms that the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics has turned into a festival unique to China. A biased judgment would be an act that devastates the players' four-year efforts. Controversy over the decision should no longer come out, and the Beijing Winter Olympics should be the last Olympics with controversy over biased judgment.
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkA-_Ek5iA4
https://sports.v.daum.net/v/20220220140007752
https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=934383&cid=43667&categoryId=43667
