You hit Kim Gili...' He finally bowed his head → 'public apology' due to the explosion of malicious comments "I didn't mean it. I won't go on social media for a while" [Milan Olympics]

*This content was translated by AI.

Kirin Stodder (25) who hit South Korean ace Kim Ki-li (22) in the short track event of the 2026 Milan/Cortina D'Ampezzo Winter Olympics, officially left an apology message.

Stodder said on his personal social networking service (SNS) on the 11th (Korea time), "I want to publicly apologize to my team members for the result that happened the previous day (10th)."

Stodder then bowed his head, saying, "Also to every other skater affected by my crash, I am sorry."

Stodderd said: "Obviously what happened yesterday was not intentional. "Clearly nothing that happened yesterday was intensive and I wanted a good Olympic result too."

"Something was wrong (during the game) yesterday," he said. "I will continue to train before I compete in the individual 1,000m event on the 14th (local time) so that I can return to my true self (Something was wrong with me yesterday and I am going to continue to work through it before Saturday's 1000m to come back to the Corinne Stoddard I know I am)."

Stodderd said, "I will not go on social media until then. "Until then I'm going to stay off Instagram as you can imagine is that I just don't need that in my performance yesterday."

Finally, he said, "I want to say thank you to everyone who continues to support me. I hope you will continue to be with me," he said, adding, "The journey is not over yet. Thank you to everyone who continues to support me, please stay with me. The journey is not over and I still want to race for what I came here for)"며 다음을 기약했다.

The bad performance of the U.S., which includes South Korea and Stodder, took place in the semifinals of the 2000m relay in the short track mix at the 2026 Milan-Cortina D'Ampezzo Winter Olympics held at the Milan Ice Skating Arena in Italy the previous day. The Korean short track mixed relay team, consisting of Choi Min-jeong (28) and Kim Gil-ri (27) and Hwang Dae-heon (27, Gangwon Provincial Government) and Lim Jong-eon (19, Goyang City Hall), was racing in Group 2.

But bad luck hit Korea. The 12th lap. The U.S. Stodder, who was leading the way, fell. However, as Stodder fell, he blocked Kim Ki-li, the Korean runner. Kim Ki-li couldn't avoid the stodder and tripped and collided strongly with the fence. Kim Ki-li, who fell, immediately regained his senses and touched the next runner, Choi Min-jeong, but in fact, the game had already been tilted. At the time of the fall, South Korea was in third place, so the referee did not make an advanced decision.

On this day, Stodder continued to expose his anxiety, falling not only in the mixed 2000m relay event, but also in the individual women's 500m preliminary and mixed relay quarterfinals. The aftermath continued on the 11th after the game. Fans who couldn't hold back some emotions visited Stodder's personal SNS account and left criticized comments. Eventually, Stodder closed the SNS comment function. And Stodder eventually apologized to his teammates in the U.S. national team as well as Kim Ki-li.

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*This content was translated by AI.