FRIENDSHIP and reconciliation have been among the enduring themes of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang – and no one has embraced this more than rival skaters from Japan and South Korea.
FRIENDSHIP and reconciliation have been among the enduring themes of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang – and no one has embraced this more than rival skaters from Japan and South Korea.
The image of Japan’s Nao Kodaira and South Korea’s Lee Sang-hwa embracing after Kodaira had beaten the hometown favourite to the gold medal in the 500-metre race even drew praise from the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
World record holder Lee, the Olympic champion in 2010 and 2014, was beaten by 0.39 seconds as Kodaira set a new Olympic record to win in a time of 36.94 seconds.
Kodaira hugged and comforted her rival, prompting Abe to tell her in a phone call: “The sight of two of you embracing each other after the race and congratulating each other was really wonderful.”
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Relations between Japan and South Korea remain strained due to a complicated past, in which Japan colonised South Korea from 1910 to 1945.
