On February 15, Viktor Ahn of the Russian Federation won the short track men’s 1000m final of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. In the final a Korean skater, Da-Woon Shin, participated as well. Ironically, after Viktor Ahn won the gold medal, various SNS such as Facebook and Twitter were dominated by messages for congratulating his victory.
Viktor Ahn, whose Korean name is Hyun-Soo Ahn, became a naturalized Russian citizen in 2011 in order to play in the Olympics, and then beat a Korean skater in the final. Normally people should have been upset, but it was hard to find anyone who placed any blame on Viktor Ahn.
Furthermore, a magazine Maxim conducted a survey that asked who you would cheer for if Viktor Ahn competed against Korean skaters and 70% of the participants said Viktor Ahn. This is very interesting because nationalism commonly exists in international sports games like the Olympics and World Cup.
Almost every single person would cheer for their own country in the Olympics unless they have a particular reason. Then why is such a phenomenon as this happening? Why are people cheering for Viktor Ahn?
The first explanation is that people put their ethnical race above nationalism. They did not care about Viktor Ahn’s nationality. They did not consider him as a foreigner just because his nationality is different. Professor Dong-Hoon Seol, of Chonbuk National University said, “An ethnical race is the first affiliated group but a nation is the second affiliated group.
People were proud that Viktor Ahn is from Korea rather than getting mad at him just because he changed nationality.” Recently the relationship between individual and nation is no longer subordinate. It is a contractual relationship as you can see through myriad cases of immigration. People interpret this phenomenon as that the nationalism which has been spread throughout Korea is slowly fading away.
Secondly, such a cheering for Viktor Ahn is people’s vicarious satisfaction. People felt that their dissatisfaction about the unfair Korean society, which is full of factionalism and irrationality, is resolved through Viktor Ahn.
It is already known to many people that the reason why Viktor Ahn chose to naturalize is that he had been sacrificed by factionalism. The Korean national short track team had been separated into two groups and Viktor Ahn had suffered from bullying and ignorance.
Because Viktor Ahn was ostracized by the Korean Skating Conference and the short track men’s team excluded him completely, he had to practice with the women’s team. In 2010, Viktor Ahn’s team was disbanded and he wasn’t taken by any team.
A triple crown-champion of the Torino Winter Olympics became unemployed overnight. After that, Russia suggested that Viktor Ahn naturalize and he accepted it.
This bizarre situation that Korean citizens are cheering for a Russian player is showing anger at a Korean society that is full of irrational systems such as factions and personal relations, and that it is almost impossible to get over those only by ability and competency. People might have wanted Viktor Ahn to deliver their message and anger to the Korean society.
Nowadays, an individual and a nation have a contractual relationship. A talented player has more opportunities to choose a nation his or herself. We should take notice if a nation manages talented players through the ‘Hyun-Soo Ahn Phenomenon’.
issued on
2014.03.10