On February 7, the semifinals of the men’s 1,000m short track speed skating race took place at the Capital Indoor Stadium, Beijing, China.
On this race, South Korean speed skater Hwang Dae-heon crossed the finish line in first place.
However, Hwang failed to advance to the finals as the referee gave him a controversial penalty for making a late passing.
Those rulings, including the one for another South Korean skater Lee June-seo, allowed Chinese skaters to advance to the finals and win both gold and silver medals.
Despite the controversial result, many Korean citizens, including BTS RM, showed their full support and cheered on the Korean athletes online.
RM simply shared a short video of Hwang Dae-heon entering the finish line, captioned with clapping and thumbs-up emojis on his personal Instagram.
That must have angered some Chinese citizens as they flocked to BTS’ official Instagram account and left malicious comments that include some offensive words and emojis.
It seems like they have gone to BTS’ account instead, as RM’s personal account only allow comments from people he follows.
In order to drive out the hate comments, BTS’ fans worldwide have been commenting hundreds and thousands of purple hearts.
Some fans left comments, saying, “RM’s Korean, so what’s the matter of him showing support for his national team?”, “The Chinese athletes were the one for the penalties.”, “Why on Earth are they expressing anger towards BTS? I don’t understand.”, and more.
Meanwhile, the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) lodged its official complaint with the chief referee, the International Skating Union (ISU) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
(Credit=”rkive” Instagram, BIG HIT MUSIC, Yonhap News Agency)
( Star)
