Speedskating Sabotage
The recent news coverage regarding an apparent speedskating sabotage at the World Team Championship in Warsaw in March 2011 was just surreal to me. Allegedly,the Korean-American short track speedskater named Simon Cho had bent the skate blades of Canadian speedskater Olivier Jean, a recent Winter Olympics bronze medalist, upon orders from his Korean-American skating coach named Jae Su Chun. Simon Cho claimed that he couldn’t refuse his coach out of Korean culture where one respects and obeys one’s elders.His coach strongly denied this serious allegation and with his lawyers is going to pit this in court as a matter of “he said,he said”.
Simon Cho made a public apology for which Olivier Jean accepted.
The skate blade bending( happened after the US Team was already eliminated from that Warsaw competition ) was out of retaliation perceived by this coach for being upset with Team USA’s recent loss in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. This coach reportedly believed that Team Canada had something to do with it as part of an imagined conspiracy theory. Olivier Jean wasn’t the prime target but since he was with Team Canada and was competing with Simon Cho in this Warsaw competition , that he naturally became a convenient victim.
As a result of this skate blade bending,the Canadian team were unable to compete for gold,finishing instead to bronze medal position.
This unfortunate incident only came to light at a recent inquiry into the actions of that same coach Jae-Su Chun that he allegedly physically abused his own skaters.
The Skating Federation vowed a quick suspension and subsequent penalties to follow.
Winning anything can really open doors for anyone whether financiallyor socially but if it’s done through cheating and manipulation, one’s reputation and credibility will be permanently destroyed thus reducing or halting any future lucrative opportunities as well as being a sign of poor sportsmanship.
Please take note! It’s not worth it. It’s not the be all and end all of success.
Success can be achieved in many ways .
Josie
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