The 2022 Beijing Olympics are due to start next month, and South Korea's short-track speed skaters are heading to China hoping to change the image they've garnered following their high-profile scandals, and bring glory to South Koreans who are very passionate about the sport, AFP revealed.

Ever since the sport has been added to the Winter Olympics program, South Korea has won more Olympic medals than any other country, with a whopping 48 medals, including 24 gold. 

A darker side

However, the country's passion for the sport has a dark underbelly to it, with cases of sexual assault and bullying, accusations of sabotaging races, and even death threats from fans dogging the team, particularly since the 2018 Olympics in South Korea.

One skater, Shim Suk-hee, has been trying to overturn a two-month suspension that rendered her ineligible to participate in Beijing. The reason behind it was a report by local media that revealed she sent texts to a coach about her teammates during the 2018 Games, wherein she suggested tripping her teammate, Choi Min-jeong, if they competed in the same events. 

The two skaters actually ended up together in the 1,000 meter final, got tangled in the final stretch of the race, and crashed into the wall. An investigation, however, found that there was not enough evidence to suggest that the sabotage was intentional,

Shim is one of the survivors of abuse herself, as revealed in 2019 that one of the coaches sexually abused her for three years since she was 17. The coach was sentenced to more than a decade of prison last year. Other athletes also came forward with similar allegations, for which sports authorities apologized.

Passion and death threats

The behavior of South Korean fans of the sports showed how passionate they are about it. During the 2018 Olympics, Canadian skater Kim Boutin was bombarded with online abuse from South Koreans angry about the disqualification of Choi.

In the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, a South Korean fan, angry over a disqualification decision by a judge, threatened to blow up the Australian Embassy in Seoul.

That same judge was also involved in what is probably the most famous South Korean short-track controversy, which took place during the 2002 Olympics when American skater Apolo Anton Ohno won the 1,500m final after Kim Dong-sung, who crossed the line first, was disqualified. The South Koreans claimed Ohno, who raised his arms in protest as he tried to cut past Kim, fooled the referee.

According to a newspaper at the time, Ohno became the most hated athlete in South Korea, with one company even manufacturing toilet paper with his face on it. A 2003 World Cup event in South Korea had the entire US team withdraw over death threats to Ohno.

"I know people are worried about how our short track team has been underperforming lately," Choi told reporters, "but we want to prove that Korea is synonymous with short track speed skating."