Chinese netizens criticized the use of profanity and derogatory expressions for speed skating Min-kyu Cha, who won a silver medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics following the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, for using his hands on the podium before going up on the podium.
At the men's 500m speed skating medal ceremony held at the National Speed Skating Stadium in Beijing yesterday (12th), when his name was called, Cha Min-gyu acted as if he was writing on the podium and climbed onto the podium.
He then flashed his right hand above his head to greet the crowd.
Mingyu Cha's actions were similar to those performed by Canadian athletes who won a bronze medal in the men's 5,000m relay at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics four years ago before they took to the podium.
At the time, it was speculated that Canadian athletes acted like that in protest of the judgment of their fellow athletes who competed in other sports.
Chinese netizens protested, saying that Cha Min-gyu acted reminiscent of the protests of Canadian players.
Chinese netizens criticized Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, saying, "Don't blame the referees, blame your skills" or "Why can't Koreans admit defeat?"
Some netizens criticized the hanbok controversy during the Olympics and last year's kimchi and pao chai controversy, saying, "Koreans try to steal anything from others."
Cha Min-gyu's award ceremony ceremony drew a lot of attention, with the number of views approaching 200 million as he ranked number one on Weibo the day before.
Regarding the controversy, Cha Min-gyu said, "The purpose of the podium was to go up with a more reverent mind because the podium was a precious and valuable place to me.
Major media, including Chinese state media, seem to be conscious of the overheating anti-China and anti-Korea sentiment in both countries, and do not report on the controversy over Cha Min-gyu's awards ceremony other than the results of the Chinese game.