For South Koreans, the name Apolo Anton Ohno doesn’t ring the most pleasant memories. And Ohno made a comment that made South Koreans bristle.
Ohno won a silver medal at the men's 1,500-meter short-track final at the Winter Olympics on Saturday in local time in Vancouver as two South Korean gold favorites -- Sung Si-bak and Lee Ho-suk -- crashed into each other in their final stretch toward the finish.
The incident made Ohno, who was trailing behind them, grab the silver medal.
Ohno’s rough manner of playing the match, pointed out by South Korean short track skater Lee Jung-soo, who won the gold in the same event, incensed Koreans.
But what earned him notoriety was a comment he made after the game.
Exhilarated Ohno revealed in an interview after the awarding ceremony that he was actually hoping that there was disqualification of the other athletes who were racing ahead of him ? all three South Korean athletes, according to Yonhap News Agency, which cited the interview transcripts posted on “INFO 2010,” a web site managed by the winter sports organizing committee.
His comment was a vivid reminder for South Koreans who haven’t forgotten what had happened in the 2002 Winter Olympics held at Salt Lake City.
At the 2002 Winter Olympics, in the same 1500m race, Ohno won the gold medal, even though South Korean Kim Dong-Sung was first across the finish line, but was disqualified for “blocking” Ohno.
Many South Koreans who watched the game on the television couldn’t believe their eyes. Some athletes in the match also pointed out the unfairness of the judgment by the referees.
Many South Korean sports fans took an issue with Ohno’s opportunistic comment on Saturday, with many Internet forums in ablaze with angry comments.
The New York Times said: “Apolo Ohno, the precocious teenage skater at the Salt Lake Games, has officially grown up. He sees himself as more of an ambassador these days ? for this area, for his family, for his country and for history.”
Few South Koreans find an ambassadorial material in him.
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