Text / ECO Krypton, Yin Hao male
01 Winter Olympics short track speed skating arena, the world set fire to South Korea
On the ninth day of the Beijing Winter Olympics, after the women's relay final of the short track speed skating 3000 meters, 13 athletes from the Netherlands, South Korea and China completed a large group photo with an Olympic spirit on the podium. Regardless of the color of the medals on the chest, every speed skating actress has a bright smile on her face, and the significance of the Olympic Games at that moment has surpassed honor and national difference.
Group photo after the women's short track speed skating 3000m relay final. (Photo: Xinhua News Agency)
But this is enough to write a beautiful moment in the textbook, it seems to have come a little late - since the opening of the Winter Olympics, the media, the public and even politicians around the several short-track speed skating controversies around the hot talk has drowned the list of social media topics several times. At the center of the storm is the South Korean short track speed skating team.
Since the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics, it seems that every short track speed skating event with a Korean team has experienced big and small storms. For example, just an hour before the 13 girls finished taking a group photo at the podium, the men's short track speed skating 500m semi-final almost caused a "bloody storm".
In this semi-final, South Korea's Hwang Dae-hyun was blown up for a "rush run" at the beginning of the game (Wang Meng believed in the live broadcast that this did not rule out Huang's game tactics); in the closing sprint, he fouled Canada's Du Bois, and was subsequently punished for violating the law and missing the final. And his knife-raising action towards China's Wu Dajing in the competition also allowed Wu Dajing to affect the final sprint when slowing down and dodging, and also missed the final, ending his defending journey in the project.
Huang Daxian (first from right) in the men's short track speed skating 500m. (Photo: Yonhap News Agency)
This is not the first time that Hwang Daehyun has been sent out for a foul at the Winter Olympics – as early as February 7 in the men's 1000m event, Hwang Daehyun and teammate Lee Joon-sui were cancelled for fouls, resulting in the South Korean short track speed skating team missing the final. Although he won the gold medal in the men's 1500m final, his simple, rough and no matter what the cost of pursuing the first place made Huang Daxian a "lack of sportsmanship" athlete representative in the eyes of many spectators.
As one of the rare multi-person races at the Winter Olympics, the 111-meter-long short track speed skating track has always been full of physical collisions and controversial penalties. However, excluding the peculiarities of the short track speed skating event itself, it can cause controversy on the field again and again – it seems that there is only a South Korean team.
The Netherlands, South Korea and China are all old rivals in short track speed skating. (Photo: Fazry Ismail/EPA)
For example, delegations from countries such as the Netherlands, Italy, and China, which are also good at short-track speed skating, rarely fall into the controversy of "lack of sportsmanship".
When Wang Meng was an athlete, he once said that "my goal is to kill the Korean team in every event", which has become a famous saying that will be brushed during the Winter Olympics. Because the mainland has suffered losses – for example, in the women's 3000m final of the 2018 Winter Olympics, Fan Kexin's slight pushing and shoving of Choi Minzhen made the Chinese team miss the podium, but South Korea's Kim Yalang tripped his opponent after falling, but did not receive any penalty.
At this year's Winter Olympics, players from other countries seem to have a special attitude towards the South Korean team. After the women's 1000m final, champion Schulting and runner-up Desmet hugged each other like good girlfriends, leaving runner-up Cui Minzhen a lonely figure, and Cui Minzhen pulling Schulting's slow-motion replay twice in a row when finally crossing the line.
On the field, Cui Minzhen was slightly lonely. (Photo: Yonhap News Agency)
Looking at the various sports in the world, it seems that no one has ever doubted the "fighting spirit" of Korean athletes on the field. But on the other hand, their sometimes unscrupulous performance for the sake of victory also alienates such tenacity. For example, after the 2002 World Cup, the Korean team, which created the best record of Asian teams, was despised by fans around the world because of its dirty performance in many games. Even, the spearhead in the South Korean team will often "counterattack", making his teammates and coaches a victim of the struggle.
South Korea at the 2002 World Cup. (Photo: PA IMAGES)
Therefore, in addition to the honor of the game, people are more curious - what exactly has created the lone wolf spirit of Koreans?
02 "Lone Wolf Spirit", a reflection of Koryo culture
Escaping military service has become one of the reasons why many Korean athletes are fighting for glory on the field.
Due to national security and prevention needs, since the end of the 1950s, South Korea has introduced conscription for men, and all men who meet the physical fitness need to enter the military for about 20 months between the ages of 18 and 28, and no one can disobey. The military service system of the past two years has been a big impact on active athletes in any sport, which means that they must abandon their existing training, events and commercial endorsements and devote themselves to military service.
However, the South Korean government is also aware of such problems, but they have only opened up the mouth of the exemption from military service to the top athletes - since 1973, South Korea has introduced a special case for the conscription law: athletes with outstanding contributions (such as Olympic medalists, Asian Games gold medalists or World Cup rounds sixteen, etc.) can be exempted from military service according to the situation, and only participate in 3 weeks of basic military training or social welfare activities.
Therefore, for example, Kim Ji-duk, who won the gold medal in archery at the Tokyo Olympic Games, Ahn Chang-lin, who won the bronze medal in judo, Song Jong-kook, Lee Tien-so, Xue Qi-hyun and Lee Young-woo, who helped the Korean team advance to the final four of the 2002 World Cup, and Son Heung-woo, who won the gold medal in football at the 2018 Asian Games, are all qualified for special cases to become "sports leaders" with outstanding contributions and are eligible for exemption from military service.
The 2018 Asian Games final won gold, and son Heung-min was ecstatic after the game. (Image: AFP)
Therefore, the "medal exception" is undoubtedly a powerful incentive for many athletes. It is not difficult to understand why in some individual sports, Korean athletes frequently have the behavior of pulling down teammates and taking the position themselves.
But in fact, the "military service system" is only one of the external factors affecting the sportsmanship of South Korea. The deeper internal cause of the "aggressiveness" of the Korean team comes from The complex political and social culture of South Korea.
On the one hand, Korean national culture emphasizes "", which is a word that is difficult to translate literally into Chinese. The closest translation is probably a synthesis of face, emotion, feeling, or mindset. In the eyes of South Koreans, maintaining "" in public is an important thing, even if they have to say some "white lies", they must always maintain a superficial peace to avoid unpleasantness.
A South Korean soldier in front of Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul's royal palace. (Photo: Juan Montano)
On the other hand, South Koreans have a different competitive spirit, which can be seen through the number of political parties in South Korean politics - statistics show that since 1945, there have been more than 500 political parties in South Korea, and the average life expectancy of political parties is only about three years. Chaotic political party changes and strife have always left South Korea in an environment full of "uncertainty". Therefore, people seem to be more concerned about whether short-term benefits can be obtained efficiently than with long-term cultivation.
"North Koreans have dark blue blood mixed in their blood" – this sentence is a true portrayal of the contradictory character of Koreans.
03 Behind competitive sports is the "unspoken rule" of Korean society
In addition, the struggle for south Korean sports, both internally and externally, often involves a struggle between the interests of the ruling authorities and the chaebols. The strife in the arena is also a reflection of the factional struggle in the political arena.
The role of sports in South Korea cannot be underestimated. The achievements of the Korean team in the World Series have helped Korea improve its international prestige and national pride, and stimulated its economic and commercial success. Since the 2002 World Cup was held in South Korea, South Koreans have shown increasing interest in professional sports, forming the "four national sports" of baseball, football, basketball and volleyball.
Before the pandemic, ticket sales for tournaments and other sporting events were growing year by year, with the total number of domestic sports viewers in South Korea reaching an all-time high of 11.5 million in 2017. The size of South Korea's sports industry has also grown steadily at an annual rate of 4.4% in the past five years, and the number of fitness rooms has increased by 150% compared with a decade ago, reaching 78 trillion won in 2018.
Baseball is one of the sports that attracts the attention of the Korean people
However, for many years, sports have also been a "tool" for the South Korean authorities, which can compete for national votes internally and international discourse power externally. From the top down, they hardly allow themselves to suffer even a small loss on the international sports stage.
For example, after Hwang Dae-hyun and his teammates were fined for violating the rules and missing out on the medal competition, the Korean Sports and Olympic Committee (KSOC) immediately said that it would appeal the so-called "unfair ruling" to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the International Olympic Committee.
The presidential candidates of South Korea's government and opposition parties have also taken advantage of the opportunity to issue tough remarks on China one after another, with the intention of stirring up public sentiment and resonating with people ' less than a month before the South Korean election.
South Korea's current president, Moon Jae-in
At the same time, the rapid development of Korean sports is also inseparable from the strong support of the chaebols behind it. In South Korea, the real voice of many professional sports leagues is in the hands of big chaebols. But it is precisely south Korea's chaebols that may also be the world's most fond of gang infighting – almost all the big companies in South Korea have built a strict oligarchy system internally, and all key positions are held by a family friend, relative, classmate or acquaintance, forming a close network of interests.
In South Korea, this is an "open secret" . Although "nepotism" is not a phenomenon that only occurs in South Korea, the degree of implementation of "nepotism" by Korean companies is probably unique. These factional struggles, large and small, have also spread like a virus from within the chaebol to the sports leagues, teams and delegations controlled by them.
The sportsmanship of passion, strength and immortality has made Korean sports win a lot in the world sports world. But the near-endless struggle has also caused Korean sports to lose their original "" in addition to honor, and thus lost many outstanding talents.
Ahn Hyun-so, who currently coaches with the Chinese short track speed skating team, is one of the victims of South Korean sports infighting. As one of the preeminent short track speed skaters in Korean history, he performed very well at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, winning 3 golds and 1 bronze. However, because he did not "take the line" correctly, he was severely excluded from the Korean team and even missed the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
So, in 2011, after another heated argument with South Korean sports officials, Ahn Hyun-so, who had been training and living in Russia for a long time, became a Russian citizen and changed his name to Victor Ahn, representing the Russian delegation at the Winter Olympics.
At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Ahn Hyun-so (center), who won gold for Russia, won the silver medal from the right with Chinese player Wu Dajing
Since then, Ahn Hyun-so has become a symbol of treason in the hearts of many Koreans. Whether it is his continued gold and silver at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, or his leadership of the Chinese short-track speed skating team to the Beijing Winter Olympics this year, it has further stimulated the anger of some Chinese people, and they have also carried out unreasonable Internet violence against their families.
Ahn Hyun-so who leads the training of the Chinese short track speed skating team (first from the right)
However, from another point of view, Korean sports are not so much a "problem teenager" raised by Korean society, but rather a mirror, which exposes many secrets buried in the darkness of Korean society to the public eye. Over the years, South Korea's literary and artistic circles and media circles have also adopted documentary or adapted works to reflect the deep-seated problems of national sports and try to correct the irrational tendencies of public opinion.
Although in the next few years, Korean sports will still appear in the international vision as a lone wolf, with the further modernization of the Korean social system, more and more young people are becoming a force for social progress and transformation. When factionalism is no longer rampant in Korean society, it may also be the beginning of a new image of Korean sports.
For us and Chinese athletes, correcting our mentality and improving sports awareness and competition level is always an unshakable "main task" - a self who is equally strong on the outside and inside, so that it will not stagnate due to the obstruction of others.