"Quit Skating": U.S. Skater Who Collided With Korean National Team Targeted by Malicious Comments

Malicious Comments Target U.S. Short Track Skater Corinne Stoddard
Stoddard Collides with Kim Gilli During Semifinal

During the mixed relay short-track event at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, a US skater collided with a Korean skater. Afterward, some Korean internet users flocked to the American skater's social media (SNS) account and poured out a barrage of comments, sparking controversy.

On the 10th (local time), during the mixed 2000m relay semifinal held at the Milan Ice Skating Arena in Italy, Korean national team member Kim Gil-li (Seongnam City Hall) collided with Corinne Stoddard of the United States. Kim ultimately finished the race in third place and failed to advance to the final.

Stoddard Corinne of the US short-track team fell and is lying face down on the ice during the women's 500m short-track preliminaries at the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics at the Milan Ice Skating Arena in Italy on the 10th (local time). Yonhap

Stoddard fell while holding on to first place and slid across the ice. Kim tried to avoid her by skating wide on the outside, but as Stoddard slid toward Kim, the two became entangled and crashed into the boards. After that, Choi Minjeong quickly tagged Kim and sprinted hard, but was unable to overturn the ranking in the end. The Korean coaching staff argued for an advance (a rule that advances a skater who has fallen due to a competitor's foul), but the decision was not changed.

After the race, some Korean internet users swarmed Stoddard's SNS account and left malicious comments. Comments on Stoddard's SNS posts included many written in Korean, such as "Beg the Koreans for forgiveness" and "How did you make the national team with skills like that?" There were also many abusive comments written in English, and emojis implying profanity were used as well. Stoddard recently disabled the comment function on her account, and as a result, the malicious comments are no longer visible.

Some malicious comments left on Corinne Stoddard's personal social media (SNS) account. SNS screenshot

Meanwhile, Stoddard fell a total of three times that day. In the mixed relay quarterfinal, she fell by herself while racing against Korea, France, and Japan. She had also fallen earlier in the women's 500m preliminary round.

Members of the US national team are pointing to ice conditions as the problem. Andrew Heo (Korean American, Korean name Heo Jaeyoung), who is on the US national team, said at a press conference, "The ice is duller than where we usually skate," adding, "Because there are so many spectators, the temperature went up and the ice became dull. When the ice is too soft, you can't apply power, and that's why so many skaters fell."