TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — South Korean media says China's speed skating gold medal was "stolen," while an American speed skater is alleging collusion after a series of questionable calls disqualified a number of athletes from different countries and handed China at least two questionable "wins" on the speed skating track.
China originally finished in third place in the mixed team relay event in speed skating, with Hungary taking first and the U.S. second, knocking the Chinese squad out of medal contention. However, the Chinese demanded a replay and after referees reviewed the footage, they ruled that an American skater had crossed the blue line and entered the race early, and it was deemed that they had impeded China's exchange of skaters.
A Russian Olympic Committee team was disqualified after a skater was seen to have gotten between two Chinese skaters during an exchange. This allegedly caused Ren Ziwei and Zhang Yuting to miss their tap, but they were allowed to continue on to the next round.
South Korean speed skater Kwak Yoon-gy, who witnessed the race, was cited by the Yonhap News Agency as saying that he had never seen a team allowed to continue after missing the exchange. If it had been any other country than China in that situation, I wondered if that team would still have been allowed to reach the final like that," added Kwak.
Once in the finals, China finished first, with Wu Dajing beating Italy's Pietro Sighel by 0.016 seconds, or about half the length of a skate blade. Hungary came in third for the bronze medal.
South Korean Media outlet No Cut News ridiculed China's gold medal as "stolen" and also questioned whether China had violated the rules during the competition. It alleged that Zhang Yuting did not correctly complete the relay to Wu Dajing, and therefore the team should be disqualified and the gold medal confiscated.
Two days later, controversy struck again during the men's 1,000-meter final, which included three skaters from China and two from Hungary. In the final turn, China's Ren Ziwei and Hungary's Shaolin Sandor Liu were neck and neck as they approached the finish line.
The two clashed just before the finish line, but Liu appeared to cross the line milliseconds before Ren. When a view review was held, the Hungarian was penalized for a lane change that resulted in contact with an opponent and for allegedly using his hand to block a run on the final turn.
However, in the video, Ren can be clearly seen using both hands to grab and push Liu away. Yet he was not issued any penalty and was handed the gold medal.
American speed skater Ryan Bedford took to Twitter to criticize the decision in the men's 1000 meters. He alleged that there was collusion between the International Skating Union and the Chinese team and deplored the officiating of the short track races as "terrible."
Pretty sure there’s some @ISU_Speed and Chinese collusion going on. These Short Track calls are terrible.
— Ryan Bedford (@RyanOBedford) February 7, 2022
