Fair play in Winter Olympic

Fairness has no exemtion.

As an athlete who has been running the short track skating in Korea for the past 20 years, I couldn't help but write about the judgments made in the short track event at the Beijing Olympics. This short track race is going beyond the unreasonable judgments directed at Korean athletes. Although this article may have impact on nothing, I would like to say a personal opinion in the hope that I do not want to see absurd decisions like today, at least for the other races left. I would say I have no intention to defend or downplay a particular country in this review.

Tag in the relay must be made

Mixed gender 2000m relay

The first issue occurred in mixed relays. The problem was that the semi-finals of the teams from Russia (ROC), China, the United States, and Hungary became a problem, but when the last 14 laps were left, the male skater from China, Renji Wei (China), was in contact with the Russian skater in the process of exchanges it. Therefore, Rennji was not tagged from previous female (Chinese) skater.

According to the International Skating Union (ISU) Technical Rules for Mixed Relay (see 2021 Special Regulations and Technical Rules Short Track Speed Skating page 51), if no exchanges are made due to interference by interfer with other teams, then the exchange can be made half a lap later. It is clearly stipulated. However, there is no rule that specified it is okay not to tag.

p) In exceptional cases when the Team cannot make an exchange because of actions from other Teams, the exchanges can be made half a lap later.

Some argue that the mixed relay is a new event, so the rules themselves are flawed. In a single gender relay other than a mixed relay, if you fail to tag or fall, the nearest skater can take over the tag and continue skating regardless of the particular order (refer to the women's 3000m semifinal at the previous PyeongChang Olympics). However, in mixed relay, it must be exchanged within the same gender. Therefore, the order of female -female-male-male (see below) should not be arbitrarily changed to female-male-male-female or male -female-male-female . That is. In other words, this is to prevent male and female athletes from competing together for a fair pairing. ISU Technical Mixed Relay Rules are:

n) The members of the Team have to relay following a fixed schedule: first, 4 X 2,5 laps, then 4 X 2 laps, and always in the following order of exchanges: Woman-Woman-Man-Man/ The racing order per Gender is left to the Team

However, the rule that the relay orders cannot be changed was nothing to do with the fact that the female Chinese skater did not tag Renji in the semifinals. If this is okay to continue skating without exchanges, the inherent reason to do relay is disappear. Is it really okay to do? Seriously? I would say 'no'. Moreover, in the context of the short track, such a situation was never happened before, and even if it had, it would of course become an absolute disqualification.

For example,  you can imagine that the last runner running in the 400m track and field relay starts running before the baton is handed over. Or, he starts running with a baton handed by a runner from another country. As such, this was the first time that a tag was not made in a shorttrack race, and was not pernalised for it. This is the first time I have heard about this since I have been skating for over 20 years. This is the first time something like this has happened, there is no way that the referee called an exact punishment rule in the race. However, if it is impossible to tag due to circumstances, the exchange should be made another half a lap. That is THE RULE, and it is a clear fact that the skaters would have been aware of that rule without any exceptional cases. Neither the athlete nor the coach has the concept of running without tagging in a relay without a penaltiy being incurred. This is ironic in itself to have to explain this!

 
 

Image: Tony Chung Facebook

If you look at the third photo among the captured above, it seems that Renjiwei, who

must be pushed, thought that the tag was made by a collision from a Russian skater, who ran into him and pushed him away to avoid colliding into him from behind, and who himself was being blocked from accessing his ROC team mates exchange by the female Chinese skater that was supposed to make an exchange,  but missed the next Chinese skater.

I would have been mistaken even if I had been in that male Chinese skater's situation. But the thing is that the female skater who had to do the push knows that she has definitely not completed an exchange-there was NO tag. Therefore, you can see the scene where the female skater continue to follow to push Renjiwei through the coner (see fourth picture).

However, realistically, Renjiwei is all out at almost full speed, and it is almost impossible for a female athlete whose speed has decreased during the tagging attempt process to catch up and make an exchange. If Renjiwei knew the exchange wasn't made, he should've either slowed down to wait for the female skater to catch him and make a tag or Renjiwei could have gone back into the inside of the track after half a turn to get the exchange from the female Chinese skater at the next corner.  Any mistakes made by unintentional errors are also a penalty if it affects any exchange anywhere in the whole race. As I write this, I realise that trying to persuade this logical fact is unbelievably hard.

Of course, the referee generally implements the rules, but also there may be exceptions depending on what has happened. Some may say, how would Renjiwei know that a tag was not made? Some can also say he should be advanced because he did not know anything that happened behind his back. However, the fact we must acknowledge is that the tag was not made. Do Not confuse the issue! It is immaterial whether he had knowledge or not or did intend to miss the exchanger not.

"Yeah, it's not your fault because you didn't know the tag was not made" but this cannot be the reason to be advanced to the next round. If we don't bring this fully into consideration now, then we won't be able to take it up the next time the same situation arises. Although it is too obvious, a fact that the Chinese skater failed to perform an exchange due to the interference of the Russian skater, under the rules as they stand that cannot be a legitimate reason for the Chinese athlete to continue skating untagged.

     

Image: SHORTTRACKHD.com

Another reason for the disqualification of the USA relay team is as follows. While Pivorotti (USA) was skating on the inside track to take over the exchange, there was a moment when he almost collided with a female Hungarian or Chinese athlete who was racing on the track. At that time, the position of Pivorotti crossed over the blue line (marking the straight race line) as shown in the picture below. This was obstructing the course of the Chinese skater. This is clearly a penalty as the picture below can be seen. However, on the whole, if you look at the context of the race,  pivorotti would not have known that a Chinese athlete would suddenly enter the inside track like that, and unless any skaters fell, it is rare to be disqualified in such a situation. However, even if there is no intention, if the referee decides that there was interference and then disqualifies him, it must be accepted. Therefore, the disqualification due to interference between the USA and Russia make sense.

My position, and that of many others, is that not every unintentional foul should be considered as advancement, if it does not materially effect the outcome of the race. I don't know why I have to repeat this obvious statement again! Thus, although this is complex, to a skilled referee, it ought to be self evident, as it was to me and to many watching.

Is it disqualifying even if the wind blows by?

Mens 1000m semi-final Group1

The Men's 1000m short track races were very controversial. The short track 1000m semi-finals are the most important rounds that require the most all-out effort. It's probably harder and more intense than the finals, because sometimes, due to the odds in the semi-finals, where top-class skaters compete for the title, less able skaters sometimes make it to the finals more by luck than skill.

The problem was the match between Hwang Dae-heon, who was in Group 1 of the semi-finals. Due to the team play of the previous two Chinese players, it seemed difficult to overtake them at once. It was a typical strategy in which Li Wenlong, who ran second, intentionally marked Hwang Dae-heon, and Renjiwei, who was at the forefront, continued to raise the pace in skating. Nevertheless, Hwang Dae-heon retakes the lead by using the small gap between the two preceding skaters. At first, Li Wenlong, who was marking Hwang at the moment of overtaking, was twisted and touched Hwang's body a little bit, but looking back at it in slow motion, Hwang clearly did not collide with the two Chinese skaters in front of him at all! Hwang did NOT transfer any force in any meaningful way that made them change direction or interfere with them an any way. Predictably, Hwang initially tried to overtake only Li Wenlong, the second placed skater, to overtake him, but Renjiwei, who had been leading, was skating a wide line into the corner, which opened the way to pass him. There was a gap. Hwang seems to have had a bit of luck with it, however, the way much more important thing is that there was absolutely no collision.

Image: SBS sport

This situation happens too often in many races in  South Korea, and even in World Cup races. In a passing situation like this, even if a skater falls, he will most likely not be disqualified as long as the body does not collide between the skaters. However, the reason Hwang received a penalty is that he caused a contact by attempting to passing late. In the video, there was no collision between the Chinese skaters themsleves, let alone any collision between Hwang and either Chinese skaters. From the point of view of causing contact, if Hwang Dae-heon's overtaking caused any additional collision, then disqualifying Hwang Dae-heon can be totally convincing, but it cannot be considered a disqualification because no forceful collision was not induced during overtaking.

Mens 1000m semi-final Group2

Another issue is Lee Jun Seo's race. As commentator Lee Jung-soo said, when Lee Jun Seo tried to pass, it was as if other skaters would seem to get out of the way. He performed very well. Additonally, his group was a very intense group than other groups, and was drawn between the Liu brothers of Hungary, who are currently ranked first and second in the world rankings, and Wu Da-jing (CHN), the fastest 500m record holder in the World. In the last lap of the race, Lee Jun Seo passed Liu Xiaoang among the Hungarian brothers and took second place. However, Liu fell down right behind Lee Jun Seo.

Image: YouTube_일사에프

Usually, in order to disqualify Lee Jun Seo in the above situation, Xiaowang (overtaker) must be on the same line as preceding skater or at least half of their body. Depending on the angle from which the referee looks, it may or may not look the same position. However, Lee Jun Seo was definitely ahead of Liu Xiaoang. The call was that Jun-seo Lee was disqualified because he crossed the lane to change and obstructed the path of the player behind him.

If this were a single incident, and there had not been these other dubious calls from previous races that favoured the home team of China, then Lee Jun-seo's disqualification could been seen as a single event, odd though it was. However, I would say that if this level of racing is so inconsistently penalised, and the appearance of partisan bias is evident when we see close action passing, and then that is ruled out of existence, we risk that by inhibition, we can no longer see the thrilling short track action we are all about.

In sports, some referees sensetively make calls in various sports. Sometimes the calls are too much, some are bad. However, the important thing is that in sports, we can pursue fairness only when the standard of judgment in sports is set the same for everyone.

Short track is inherently lethal.

Short tra