Korean Hostility

Brian Cazeneuve

December 13, 2004

Apolo Ohno has been a flash point for controversy in Korea since the 1,500-meter Olympic final in Salt Lake City, where he tossed back his hands to avoid a collision with Korea's Kim Dong Sung. Kim won the race but was disqualified for impeding Ohno's progress. Ohno was awarded the gold medal, and many Koreans blamed him for baiting the officials with his hand gesture and saw him as the personification of American impudence. When the Korean soccer team scored a goal against the U.S. during the 2002 World Cup that June, the players celebrated with a speed skating motion that mocked Ohno (above right). And in a poll by the English-language Korea Herald, Korean students listed Ohno as the person they would least like to invite to the World Cup; Osama bin Laden was second. "I mean, who's voting on these things?" Ohno says. "I want to know why people feel I did something wrong to their entire country." Ohno is still unsure about skating at the world team championships in Chunchon, South Korea, in March. "All it takes is one person who's crazy to do something tragic," he says. --B.C.