"I apologized, but he rather hit me." "Why am I disqualified?" [Milan Olympics]

*This content was translated by AI.

Chinese national team Lian Zhiwen, who caused a "civil inconvenience" to a player who competed together in speed skating at the 2026 Milan and Cortina D'Ampezzo (Italy), showed a rather hostile attitude.

According to Chinese media such as Zbo8 on the 12th (Korea time), Lian Zhiwen said in an interview shortly after the men's 1,000m speed skating disqualification at the competition, "After leaving the curve, I felt that Yup Benemars (the Netherlands) was very close. I was getting out of the curve with all my might, he said. "He hit my skate blade, but I don't know why the referee disqualified me."

"All the athletes prepare for four years for the Olympics, so I eventually apologized to him for being sorry," Lian Zi-wen said. "And yet, the opponent was very angry and hit me." I don't think you need to be this angry on the field," he added.

Earlier, Lian Ziwen touched Venemars' skate blade during the Group 11 match at Milan Speed Skating Stadium in Italy. Lian Zhiwen was in the process of changing lanes from in-course to out-course and Venemars from out-course to in-course. Speed skating has priority for players coming in from the out-course to the in-course when changing lanes. The priority was on Venemars.

However, Venermas, who collided with him amid Lian Zhiwen's excessive race, was reeling and his acceleration decreased. Nevertheless, Venemars finished the race in 1:07.58 to rise to the top of the middle at the time, but the record could have been much shorter without a collision with Lian Tzu-wen. Venemars expressed strong anger at Lian Tzu-wen shortly after the race. Afterwards, the judges judged that Lian Ziwen had caused a collision in the process of being forced to go out of the course, so they were disqualified.

Players who played after Venermas overtook Venermas one after another to reverse the rankings. Since then, the judges have had Venemars race alone after all the races, but the record was rather late because they had already raced with all their might. In the end, Venermas finished fifth, just 0.24 seconds behind the bronze medal record. If there was no conflict with Lian Ziwen earlier, it would have been possible to win a medal, so Venermas' "anger" was inevitable.

In the midst of this, Lian Ziwen apologized to the opponent, whose record was sagging due to a collision with him, but responded with the intention that he would not admit the reason for his disqualification. Furthermore, even though he ruined the Olympic challenge of a player who had prepared for four years, as he expressed, he showed an attitude that "there was no need" to the opponent's sharp response after the game. Coincidentally, it was another Chinese player, Ninjung Yan, who won the bronze medal instead of Venermas being pushed back from the medal table.

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*This content was translated by AI.