{"id":377924,"date":"2026-04-06T13:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T13:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/377924\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T13:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T13:40:12","slug":"short-track-speed-skater-hwang-belatedly-addresses-controversies-on-and-off-the-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/377924\/","title":{"rendered":"Short track speed skater Hwang belatedly addresses controversies on and off the ice"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Short track speed skater Hwang Dae-heon celebrates after winning the silver medal in the men’s 1,500-meter short track speed skating event at the Winter Olympics at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan on Feb. 14. [YONHAP] <\/p>\n

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Short track speed skater Hwang Dae-heon spoke out belatedly about his past controversies, especially sexual harassment allegations against former teammate Lin Xiaojun \u2014 whose Korean name is Lim Hyo-jun \u2014 and more recent criticism that his aggressive actions on the ice have harmed team members.
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\u201cInaccurate information is now believed to be facts since I haven’t addressed the controversies surrounding me,\u201d Hwang said in a statement on Monday.\u00a0\u201cI want to correct that.\u201d
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The controversy stems from a 2019 incident at the Jincheon National Training Center, where Hwang accused fellow skater Lin of sexual harassment, alleging that Lin pulled down his pants during training.
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Lin\u00a0received a one-year suspension from the Korea Skating Union over the incident and immigrated to China, where he now competes as Lin Xiaojun.\u00a0
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\u201cI felt ashamed and embarrassed at the time. Lin continued to mock me by dancing and teasing me during training, which felt\u00a0humiliating,” said Hwang.\u00a0
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Hwang also raised concerns about the sincerity of Lin\u2019s apology.\u00a0
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\u201cBefore the first disciplinary committee meeting, Lin apologized, but immediately after I finished speaking, he asked me to sign a printed confirmation,\u201d Hwang said. \u201cFrom that moment, none of his apologies felt genuine.\u201d
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\u201cThis should not have escalated to this extent, but it has become an irreversible situation, which is unfortunate,\u201d Hwang said, expressing his hope to clear up misunderstandings and compete again on the ice.
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\"China\u2019s <\/p>\n

China\u2019s Lin Xiaojun reacts after finishing fourth and failing to advance to the semifinals in the men\u2019s 500 meters quarterfinals in short track speed skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan on Feb. 18. [NEWS1]<\/p>\n

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Hwang also addressed a \u201cteam kill\u201d controversy involving teammate Park Ji-won that arose last season.
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At the time, Hwang faced criticism after repeatedly fouling Park at events, including the world championships, which ultimately cost Park a spot on the national team.
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\u201cI am highly competitive and tend to attempt aggressive overtakes, but I have never intended to harm anyone,\u201d Hwang said. \u201cI will try to ensure there is no room for misunderstanding.\u201d\u00a0
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Hwang also defended his highly criticized interview demeanor.\u00a0\u00a0
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\u201cThe negative expressions and behavior I showed were not because I was upset, but rather stemmed from being caught off guard in unexpected situations,\u201d he said.
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\u201cHwang is currently experiencing both physical and mental fatigue and will not participate in the upcoming national team selection trials,\u201d his agency Lionat announced.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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BY PARK JONG-SUH [[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Short track speed skater Hwang Dae-heon celebrates after winning the silver medal in the men’s 1,500-meter short track…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-377924","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}