Short Track Speed Skating

[JTMacc99]

[blackwing]

I always like watching short track speed skating because it's so exciting.  Watched some of this over the weekend.

The mixed team event is new this time around, and saw a familiar face... John Henry Krueger, who I believe was the only American medalist in 2018.  Except this time, now he is skating for Hungary.  Apparently he and his family had some big dispute with the U.S. Speedskating Federation, and unfortunately, it seems to have come down to money.  They seemed to think that the association should pay him or help out with expenses.  They were denied and he moved to Hungary.  The commentator mentioned that his mom has Hungarian ancestry, and apparently in Hungary, anyone with Hungarian ancestry (even going back hundreds of years) can acquire citizenship.

Seems kind of drastic, but I guess he wanted to further his participation and competitiveness in the sport, and apparently the Hungarian federation helps its athletes a lot more than the U.S.  My question... did he have to renounce his American citizenship?  The U.S. allows for dual citizenship by birth (example, one American parent, one Canadian parent).  But I don't think they allow someone to acquire citizenship or become a naturalized citizen of another country without renouncing their American citizenship first.

For John Henry, it seems that if he had Hungarian citizenship from birth, then it's clear he would be treated as a dual citizen from birth.  But it seems in this situation, he had to apply for it and get approved (apparently you have to prove Hungarian ancestry and also have to pass some kind of language test).  So this is a grey area to me.

Canada doesn't seem to have any big stars anymore besides Kim Boutin.  Charles Hamelin is older and not as competitive.  Samuel Girard was supposed to be the next big men's star but for some reason he suddenly retired, even though he is only 25.

I was looking at the results from the Men's 1000 and there were loads of disqualifications/penalties.  And even a few yellow cards handed out to some of the sport's "names".  Will be interesting to watch tonight.

 

[NUguy514]

The South Korean who was disqualified in the first of the men's 1,000m semifinals should file a protest.  He made a perfect pass, and that DQ would never have happened if this event weren't being held in China.

[galaxygirl76]

4 hours ago, NUguy514 said:

The South Korean who was disqualified in the first of the men's 1,000m semifinals should file a protest.  He made a perfect pass, and that DQ would never have happened if this event weren't being held in China.

Korea did protest and the ISU upheld the (ridiculous) DQ. Korea is going to CAS now. 

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/skorea-lodge-protest-with-cas-ioc-over-disqualified-short-track-skaters-2022-02-08/

There seem to be an alarming amount of DQs that benefit the Chinese. 

[MaryMitch]

19 hours ago, blackwing said:

Seems kind of drastic, but I guess he wanted to further his participation and competitiveness in the sport, and apparently the Hungarian federation helps its athletes a lot more than the U.S.  My question... did he have to renounce his American citizenship?  The U.S. allows for dual citizenship by birth (example, one American parent, one Canadian parent).  But I don't think they allow someone to acquire citizenship or become a naturalized citizen of another country without renouncing their American citizenship first.

You can retain your US citizenship, but the US can still require you to pay income tax, regardless of where you earn the money. 

[Guest]

I was mightily amused watching the end of the medal ceremony for the women's 3000m relay. At the end, the ushers kept politely trying to get the Dutch, Korean, and Chinese skaters to move off the podium and out of the arena, but they all just kept hugging each other, taking group selfies, jumping up and down, etc. The ushers would move in making their little "this way please" hand gestures, but then would be like "oh, they're taking another picture, ok" and back off. The skaters had no clue because they were just having the best time. It was quite adorable.

[Crashcourse]

Congratulations to Erin Jackson for winning the gold medal in the 500m.

[emmawoodhouse]

1 hour ago, Crashcourse said:

Congratulations to Erin Jackson for winning the gold medal in the 500m.

That was long track. 🙂

[Crashcourse]

3 hours ago, emmawoodhouse said:

That was long track. 🙂

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/13/sport/erin-jackson-500m-speed-skating-winter-olympics-gold-medal-spt-intl/index.html

[emmawoodhouse]

12 minutes ago, Crashcourse said:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/13/sport/erin-jackson-500m-speed-skating-winter-olympics-gold-medal-spt-intl/index.html

There's a thread for that. 🙂

[Crashcourse]

3 minutes ago, emmawoodhouse said:

There's a thread for that. 🙂

Yes, wrong thread, but I'll just leave it here.  🙂

[galaxygirl76]

I'm so happy for the Dutch girls of the relay team. In 2020 they lost one of their team members who was part of the bronze medal team from 2018, she got sick during a training camp in France, went to the hospital where she died two weeks or so later of complications from an auto immune disorder, and that obviously hit the team hard. It's why they were pointing up when they were on the podium. So, this one was for Lara.

[SeanC]

Hamelin you magnificent bastard, what a way to go out.

[blackwing]

Huge congrats to Charles Hamelin.  One of the greats of the sport, happy he gets a gold on his last time out.  Happy for his teammates as well.

This has been a particularly disappointing Olympics for Kim Boutin and the women.  I know there were high hopes, but she got a bronze and nobody else managed to medal, not even the relay team.