[Olympics] 'Nun Tteugo Ko Beijing' Short Track Judgment, Appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Comprehensive)

Korean Sport "Officially Declares Unfair Judging... Will Prevent Unjust Situations for Our Athletes"
Key Is to Identify Fraud or Intentional Errors in Judging

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The Korean delegation participating in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics will file an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) regarding the judgment in the men's 1000m short track semifinals held on the 7th. The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee announced that team leader Yoon Hong-geun held an emergency press conference at the Beijing Winter Olympics Main Media Center on the morning of the 8th and declared the appeal to CAS. An official stated, "We will formalize the unfairness of this judgment to ensure that such unjust incidents never happen again to our athletes in the international skating and sports community."

In the men's 1000m semifinals, Hwang Dae-heon (Gangwon Provincial Office) and Lee Jun-seo (Korea National Sport University) finished first and second in their heats but were disqualified due to questionable rulings. Both were accused of committing fouls by changing lanes, allowing Chinese skaters Li Wenlong and Wu Dajing, who finished third in their heat, to advance to the finals. There was no contact that could be considered problematic. There was also no obstruction of the Chinese skaters' paths.

The Chinese skaters took the gold (Ren Ziwei) and silver (Li Wenlong) medals in the finals amid similarly incomprehensible rulings. The referees issued two penalties and a yellow card to Hungarian skater Shaolin S?ndor Liu, who crossed the finish line first. Meanwhile, Ren Ziwei, who blatantly pulled Shaolin S?ndor's left arm just before the finish line, received no penalties.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The Korean delegation strongly protested to the short track referee chairman immediately after the race and sent letters of complaint to the International Skating Union (ISU) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee explained the background of the appeal, stating, "This decision to appeal considers the hard work and sweat of our athletes and the public sentiment over biased judgments boiling domestically. We have comprehensively judged that the refereeing decisions cannot gain support in the international sports community and that the relationships with the unfair and non-transparent international federations and referees are also problematic." They added, "This appeal will serve as an opportunity to prevent repeated controversies and disadvantages regarding judgments against Korean athletes that have occurred multiple times."

CAS often does not review cases unless there is a misapplication of rules or corruption such as referee bribery. Korea's appeal to CAS during the Olympics is the first in 18 years since the Yang Tae-young incident at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. Yang Tae-young scored 57.774 points in the men's individual all-around gymnastics but was robbed of the gold medal when judges scored his parallel bars routine with 0.1 instead of the correct 0.2 bonus points. After the controversy, the International Gymnastics Federation acknowledged that Yang was disadvantaged by the misjudgment and sanctioned the chief and technical judges. However, CAS ruled, "Errors resulting from judges' mistakes, not match-fixing or bribery, are not subject to reversal." In the cases of Hwang Dae-heon and Lee Jun-seo, the key is to uncover any fraud or intentional wrongdoing involved in the judgment.