BEIJING– Back on ice to train a day after a refereeing decision that angered his country, South Korean short track speed skater Hwang Dae-heon said Tuesday he wants to learn from the messy situation.
Hwang was disqualified in the men’s 1,000m semifinals at Beijing 2022 on Monday, getting called for an illegal passing that caused contact with another skater.
The South Korean Olympic committee plans to take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Senior officials of the athletic delegation here called a press conference earlier Tuesday to express their outrage over the decision.
Hwang, who didn’t speak to the media in the immediate aftermath Monday, seemed rather chipper after his training session at Capital Indoor Stadium on Tuesday.
“I learned that something like that can actually happen,” Hwang said. “I didn’t make any contact with anybody. When the officials were reviewing the video, I thought they were looking at a Chinese skater touching my knee earlier in the race.”
Hwang admitted to feeling angry, but he also understands he still has races coming up in Beijing.
“I want to eat well and get a good night’s sleep, because I have so much more of the Olympics left,” he said. “I know I have the support of so many fans behind me. I want to come through for them.”
The rulings against Hwang and another South Korean, Lee June-seo, allowed Chinese skaters to reach the final. It led to accusations among aggrieved South Korean fans that short track officials were making calls in favor of the host country.
Asked if he had prepared anything in particular to guard against biased refereeing, Hwang took a subtle jab at the Chinese team.
“It’s a secret. I can’t say anything, because there are too many people who speak Korean here,” Hwang said, referring to China’s Korean-born head coach Kim Sun-tae and assistant Victor An, a naturalized Russian born Ahn Hyun-soo in Korea.
Hwang said he appreciated South Korea’s decision to take the case to the CAS.
“Hopefully, we won’t see anything like this again,” Hwang said. “And I have to have clean races, too.”
Lee also said he was ready to move on from Monday’s events.
“It’s all in the past. I can’t turn back the clock,” he said. “I want to concentrate on my next races.”
Lee said he had no idea the officiating controversy in his sport had been dominating the headlines back home, adding he hadn’t been checking his phone that much during the Olympics.
He did say he was surprised to see his name pop on the scoreboard as the penalized skater.
“I don’t know if I have been disqualified like this,” Lee said. “But maybe I have been, and I just can’t remember it now.”
Hwang and Lee will resume their medal hunt Wednesday in the 1,500m.
Source: Yonhap News Agency