Ohno Became “Pro-Korean” ?

Lodged with Koreans and became familiar with 떡볶이

Ohno ran on the ice rink on September 25. He lead his team to semi-final of men's 1500m relay.

An American national athlete of short track, Apolo Anton Ohno, who was a nationwide foe of Koreans, became an enthusiastic ‘Pro-Korean’. He is now participating in 09 ISU World Cup short track speed skating held in the Mokdong ice rink. A journalist, Jung Se-young, met with him. After finishing the men's 5000m relay, Ohno said “Koreans misunderstood me so there was a time when I couldn’t come here. However it’s a history.”

In 2002 Saltlake Winter Olympic men’s 1500m, Ohno posed as being interrupted by Kim Dong-sung, who was Korean’s best player, while they are playing the game. Finally, Kim was disqualified and Koreans thought that Ohno stole a Golden Medal from him by doing a “Hollywood action” (this word is used among Koreans to refer to an exaggerated action).


men's 1500m final, 2002

“I didn’t do anything wrong, so I was so mortified.” he said. “ I was not be able to come to Korea until 2005 when I was relieved of my fear. When I arrived at the Incheon airport to participate in the World Cup held in Seoul in 2005, I was surrounded by many guards because I could be threatened by someone. I was so scared that I couldn’t come out of a hotel. However, I decided to clear up the misunderstanding instead of hiding away from Koreans."

Then, he had many interviews and went shopping in his free time. He thought that many people would blame him but a lot of people welcomed and embraced him instead of condemning him. He was touched by his fans who even saw him off at the airport so he became a pro-Korean.

He has trained with a Korean coach, Jang Kwon-Ok, since 2003 and he stayed with Korean players for three weeks in 2007. When Cho Sung-mun, who emigrate from Korea to America and became a American national athlete, suffered from an economic problem, Ohno helped him not to abandon skating. His father is Japanese so he has no aversion to Asian culture.

“Korean team is not only a rival but also a partner. They only think about short track all the time. That is why Korean team is very strong.” he said. By the time he finished the interview, 떡볶이 was cleaned up.

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