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South Korean Roller Skater Celebrates Early and Costs Team Gold Medals

South Korean Roller Skater Celebrates Early and Costs Team Gold Medals

In a massive upset at the Asian Games on October 2nd, South Korean roller-skater Jung Cheol-won finished 2nd after celebrating too early just before the finish line, costing his team gold medals that would’ve secured some of its younger members exemption from military service.

The 27-year-old Jung Cheol-won made the mistake of raising his arms as he approached the finish line, only to be passed by Taiwan’s Huang Yu-Lin by 0.01 seconds.

“I made a rather big mistake,” said South Korea’s Jung. “I didn’t come at full speed to the finish line. I let my guard down too early. I am very sorry.”

Huang Yu-Lin initially thought he was a little short until he saw the results on the screen. “I thought it was such a shame that I was just a little bit short, and then the results came up on the screen showing that we had won by one-hundredth of a second, and it was just a miracle.”

Because of the early celebration that led to the loss, the South Korean roller skate team missed out on securing a military service exemption, as only gold medalists are given the special pass. Korean netizens reacted by joking about how much the skater must have wanted to serve in the military that he threw the race.

Here’s a video showing the moment:

The Men’s 3000m relay final was won by Chinese Taipei, who finished 4:05.692, narrowly beating out South Korea’s time of 4:05.702.

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