The first major major controversy has occurred in the asian games.... and it happened in tae-kwon-do.... which has had its fair share of controversy since the last 2 olympics....
so... here is what happened that day.....
it is Vietnam vs Taiwan..... the taiwanese athlete was the hot shot gold medal favourite... and this was just her 1st round bout.... so... it was going to be a stroll in the park for her....
before a tae kwon do match begins, each athletes are told to kick the other athletes pads to make sure that the sensors are functioning properly.... thats the top picture (kicking without the head-gear)
on the heel of the taiwanese athlete, there are sensor pads.... they were used in the past, however, new rules have had them removed from competition.... so.... the referee tells the taiwanese athlete to remove them...... she runs over to her coach, and has the sensors removed....
during the match, she doesnt have those sensors..... thats the second picture.... there are no sensors on her heel.... and in about 90 seconds in the first round, the taiwanese athlete kicks her opponent twice in the head, and 3 times on the pads to take a very convincing 9-0 lead....
with 12 seconds left in the first round, the match is stopped.... a match referee on the side asks to see the taiwanese athletes gear, and then the resulting decision is.... she is disqualified.....
the taiwanese athlete is somewhat a national sporting star.... gold medal favourite.... so this didnt go down very well in taiwan.... KOREAN FLAGS WERE BURNT, AND A MASSIVE ANTI-KOREA MOVEMENT BEGAN..... of course, the taiwanese officials have taken this matter to the appropriate councils to have the decision overturned....
The Reaction in Korea...... well.... first..... the korean media is f-ked up.... and when it comes to sport, even the tv commentary is somewhat pathetic.... and the media addressed this matter in a amteurish way that the korean public (who are generally trend-following bandwagon riders) to react in disgust of taiwan....
the korean media says... why are they burning our flag? what did we do? the referee wasnt korean.... the opponent wasnt korean.... and the other side judges were also not korean....
yes... thats all true.... so why did a korean match official stop the match?? yes.... he was korean....
the korean people have replied on the internet with comments which are predominantly along the lines of, "just because we are better than u in taekwondo.... ur rival is china, its china's home games... blame china, not korea...."
the straight facts are..... korea knew that they didnt have an athlete that could compete with the taiwanese athlete in this division.... so they didnt enter an athlete in the division.... so in that sense, i dont think korea could argue they are better......
the conspiracy is that china had the other strong athlete, so they took the opportunity to DQ the taiwanese athlete to give the chinese athlete a better chance.... but thats really left field~
so what do i think??
i think taiwan should not be burning flags..... thats so wrong on so many levels.... and since they are a nation that has to compete as Chinese Taipei, and cant use their national flag in international events.... u would think they'd be more sensative about flags......
korean people shouldnt be so naive and defensive about the taiwanese reaction..... afterall, it was earlier this year, a korean man threatened to bomb the australian embassy because an aussie match official DQ'd a korean speed skater at the winter olympics..... and since korea still hasnt gotten over the 2002 Ohno incident.... 2004 gymnastics incident..... 2010 speed skating incident.... maybe they should be showing a little more sympathy to another country that just got pushed over for being a minnow country...
if taiwan wanna play with the big boys, they gotta start acting like the big boys....
and if korea doesnt like being bullied at the olympics, they should stop bullying at the asian games....
