The great Victor Ahn! | Golden Skate

The great Victor Ahn!

pangtongfan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
Victor Ahn, the former Ahn Hyun-Soo has now won his 6th Olympic Gold and 8th Olympic medal, despite being kept out of the 2010 Winter Olympics by a combination of injury and internal Korean politics (hence why he went to Russia). He won 3rd gold at these games alone. Definitely the best short track speed skater or probably speed skater period of all time. I wonder if Sotnikova's ridiculous win over Kim (a South Korean of course) and Kostner was partly karma due to how poorly South Korea treated the all time legend of the sport.
 

drkil

Spectator
Joined
Feb 21, 2014
karma or no, one thing certain is that Koreans are going through one of the most underwhelming Olympic performance in a while.
 

gimble

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 26, 2010
So far, all Korea's medals are by women. Pretty cool. Although their speed skating men's team is guaranteed a silver medal on team pursuit.
First time I watching the team pursuit and it was very odd I thought. The Dutch team was so fast...
 

bebevia

On the Ice
Joined
Jun 22, 2011
I guess you also posted that Victor An article in another thread, right? It's not right to suggest irrelevant controversies - moreso concerning a domestic issue. (Koreans only wished Russia and Canada take Yuna) Also, most past protests made by Koreans were very much valid, and Korea isn't the only country to protest against its disadvantageous results.

In case of the 1988 boxing, the article is distorting facts. Wine and dine was a rumour that followed the dubious judging for an obvious reason, but was not the factor. It's mixing up the protest at a Korea vs. Bulgaria match about the dubious judging by a Bulgarian referee against Korea, which did not go through; rather, the boxer was suspended for 5 yrs, and the chairs of KBF and Korean Olympic Committee resigned. Another Korean boxer had the opposite: he won the quarter with a home advantage, then won with a dubious judging. That was part of famous Cold War Olympics disasters, where the two of the five referees were Russian and Hungarian, who wanted to revenge the US winning more golds.

BTW, that Korean boxer did not agree and lifted the US boxer's hand at the podium. He was then blamed for everything, even by Koreans, and led a miserable life. What are you trying to suggest about Sotnikova by relating this article?
Copy & Paste.

It's sickening how these come up every time saying "Korea deserves to be unfairly judged since that happened". Koreans are sensitive about any judging, for or against, just as much as any "Karma" nation.

P.S.: From what I've seen, the entire Korea rooted for Russian short tracks throughout this Olympics. They should've taken Yuna along. (Carolina seems fine with Italy)

P.S. 2: blue_ice is trolling, flipping sides with this controversy.
 

anyanka

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 8, 2011
I read somewhere that the Korean public was supportive of Ahn and furious at the Korean skating federation for treating him so poorly and letting him defect to Russia. Public opinion polls show they agree with why he did it, even if it meant a great loss for their nation's sport.

I am hesitant to call any of this "karma". Viktor simply had a smart agent (his uncle) who took the initiative to find him the support when his country's federation no longer supported him, so he could pursue his dream. It was smart planning. Remember lots of athletes change countries or acquire additional citizenship to pursue their dream, including:

- Vic Wild (US --> Russia)
- Yuko Kavaguti (Japan --> Russia)
- Tatiana Volosozhar (Ukraine --> Russia) [a trend is forming?]
- Isabella Tobias (US + Lithuania)
- Siobhan Heekin-Canedy (US + Ukraine)
- Daniel Igali (Nigeria + Canada)
- Kyoko Ina (Japan --> US)
- Kaitlyn Weaver (US + Canada)
- Tanith Belbin (Canada + US)
- the Reeds (US --> Japan) [also: Allison in 2010: US + Georgia]

Not every one of these brought home medals, but they are top athletes who command respect.
 
Top