Olympic athlete Lee Yong Dae’s ideal woman is no longer Girls’ Generation’s YoonA

During Lee Yong Dae‘s interview with MBC‘s ‘Section TV‘, the athlete revealed that his ideal woman has changed from Girls’ Generation‘s YoonA to fencer Shin Ah Lam.

During the recording in which Park Tae Hwan, Shin Ah Lam, Lee Yong Dae, and other representative athletes participated, fencer Shin Ah Lam chose badminton player Lee Yong Dae as the athlete she likes the most expressing, “When I see athlete Lee Yong Dae at the athlete’s village, I unintentionally look at him as if I’m looking at a celebrity.”

In response to Shin Ah Lam’s statement, athlete Lee Yong Dae who had picked Girls’ Generation’s YoonA as his ideal woman last year replied, “My ideal type has changed to athlete Shin Ah Lam.”

In addition, when asked about her ’1 second’ controversy that became one of this year’s biggest Olympic scandals for South Korea, Shin Ah Lam stated, “That one second stopped and never passed. I think that second, to this moment, has probably yet to pass” and offered her honest thoughts.

Meanwhile, catch the athletes on the episode of ‘Section TV’ airing today August 26th.

Source + Image: Osen

Fencer Shin Ah Lam opens up about the controversial call at her semi-final match

On August 6th, Channel A held a special ‘Immortal National Athletes in London‘ special where they met up with the national female fencing team and congratulated on the medals they’ve earned at the Olympic games.

Fencer Shin Ah Lam was also present to share her thoughts on the unfortunate turn of events where she was unfortunately eliminated after a controversial and unjust call at a semi-final match against Britta Heidemann of Germany.

She expressed, “The case will forever remain in my memories.” When asked if she had any ill feelings toward Heidemann, she replied honestly, “I don’t have any ill feelings towards her because she did her best to win. I do, however, don’t have good feelings toward referee Barbara Csar.”

On being awarded a ‘special medal’, she stated, “I’ve never been officially offered a special medal through the association or my coach. I only found out about the offer through reports in the media. Even if they were to offer it to me, I would not accept it because I would not know why they were giving it to me.”

Athlete Kim Dong Sung offered words of support, as he had suffered a similar fate against Apolo Ohno in the 2002 short track skating Olympics. He expressed, “During the incident, I remember going into the locker room and crying so hard at the unfairness that I eventually fainted. I woke up to find myself connected to an oxygen mask. The only way to overcome it is to do even better in the future.”

Shin Ah Lam replied, “I will train harder so that I can win a gold medal one day. I will be going back into training for a world competition next January.”

Source + Photos: Star N News via Naver

A-PRINCE’s Taehyuk makes a donation to the ‘Shin Ah Lam Citizen’s Gold Medal Fund’

Member Taehyuk of rookie group A-PRINCE is gathering much attention for his participation in the ‘Shin Ah Lam’s citizen’s gold medal crowd funding‘ project. The project was created to present fencer Shin Ah Lam with the gold medal she deserved, but was unable to attain because her chances were robbed by an unjust call made by the referees during the semifinals of women’s individual epee fencing.

On the 5th, Taehyuk posted on his twitter, “I just took part in fencer Shin Ah Lam’s citizen’s gold medal funding! I hope it gives the dispirited athlete Shin Ah Lam some strength!”

The singer continued, “Athlete Shin Ah Lam, don’t be too bummed out, you are the gold medalist in A-PRINCE’s hearts.”

On the first of August, the project to present Shin Ah Lam with a medal was created through funding platform website ‘incujector.com‘. The project has surpassed it’s primary goal of raising 300,000 KRW (approximately $266 USD) and is currently above 900,000 KRW which comes out to be around $800 USD. The original goal was to acquire a gold-plated medal worth 350,000 KRW ($309 USD), however through the second round of funding, the site is hoping to earn 2,900,000 KRW ($2,568 USD) to present the athlete with a medal made of pure gold.

Netizens who heard news of the project stated, “Actions speak louder than any spoken word“, “Her perceptiveness is as beautiful as her face“, “Shin Ah Lam is already a gold medalist“, and more.

In other news, the A-PRINCE members who just recently released their pre-single ‘You’re the Only One‘ plan to release their first mini album in September through a 50-day countdown project.

Source & Image: Osen via Naver

‘Running Man’ pokes fun at Olympics fencing controversy

SBS‘s ‘Running Man‘ was the latest show to make a sideways swipe at the 2012 London Olympics’ alleged mistaken ruling over the fencing match involving South Korean fencer Shin Ah Lam.

In the beginning of the episode, the show aired a brief segment detailing what had happened during the last week. With the caption “Superpowers exist?” the show parodied the several mistakes that the Olympic judges had allegedly made, giving them the titles of “The one with the power to stop time” and “The one who can see what high-speed cameras fail to see”.

Shin Ah Lam had missed out on an opportunity to win a medal when the timer accidentally stopped with one second left on the clock, during which her opponent took the chance to hit her multiple times.

Other shows, such as ‘Gag Concert‘ and ‘Infinity Challenge’, had also poked fun at the incident.

Source: TV Daily via Nate

‘Infinity Challenge’ pokes fun at T-ara scandal and Olympic fencing?

The weekend MBC variety show ‘Infinity Challenge’ has long been known for its sharp wit and sideways references to social issues, and the latest episode was no exception as the show made quick passing remarks towards both the T-ara incident and the Olympic fencing controversy.

Midway during the program, cast member Noh Hong Chul grew visibly frustrated during a ‘speed quiz’ segment, and the caption remarked “only one second passed…you can slow down”. This is a reference to the incident during the 2012 London Olympics where South Korean fencing contestant, Shin Ah Lam, was attacked by her opponent repeatedly during a period when the timer was momentarily stopped with one second left on the clock.

In another segment, team leader Jung Jun Ha attempted to push Defconn to the other team, but met with fierce resistance along with the caption “hanging on with determination”. ‘Determination’ has become a buzzword of sorts following the tweets by the T-ara members which started the entire controversy.

Source: Star News via Nate

 

Fencer Shin Ah Lam’s dream of an Olympic medal crushed; Celebrities appalled

With the news of Shin Ah Lam not making it into the fencing finals in the 2012 London Olympics due to what the overwhelming majority of viewers have expressed to be an unjust call, celebrities have been voicing their opinions on the matter.

HaHa posted to Twitter, “How lonely and furious must Shin Ah Lam be sitting on the piste all by herself. I’m so livid, I think I might cry. I’ll pray for you! You’re not alone. We will all pray for you.”

Singer Jung Jae Hyung stated, “I want to protect our athlete Shin Ah Lam! Those dirty referees! I mean, if there are rules then you referee according to those rules. If your decision was not in line with the rules than you accept your mistake and either call a rematch or find a different option.”

Rapper Tiger JK stated wittily, “The referees need to get their butts spanked for 1 second… an endless second.”

KARA’s leader Gyuri wrote on her Twitter after her plane ride to Japan, “Wow I got to Sapporo, Japan in one second! ^^,” mocking the endless ‘1 second’ clock error that occurred during Shin Ah Lam’s match.

The event the celebrities are referring to is Shin Ah Lam’s match against 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medalist, Britta Heidemann.

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On the 30th, fencer Shin Ah Lam lost the semi-final match with a final score 5-6. Competing against Britta Heidemann of Germany, the game continued into overtime after a tied score of 5-5. With one second left in overtime, Heidemann would win with her next successful attack and advance to the finals or Shin would win by default if Heidemann failed. However, even after three consecutive attacks were successfully avoided by Shin Ah Lam, the stop clock remained at 00:01.

Although everyone including the audience was in a state of confusion at that point, the female referee stated, “Hold on a second!” and reset the clock to 1 second, and Heidemann landed a strike against Shin Ah Lam.

After Heidemann’s victory was confirmed, the Korean team protested the result. However, after around 30 minutes of discussion, the referees gave their final decision, and Shin Ah Lam had indeed lost her chance at gold. Unable to accept the unfair decision, Shin Ah Lam remained on the piste for nearly an hour, waiting an hour for the refs to take back the wrong call. According to the rules of fencing, once a fencer steps off the piste, the result of the match is assumed as accepted.

Eventually the officials issued a ruling to reject the appeal, and Shin left in tears, while the crowd booed the officials’ decision. Shin subsequently lost the bronze medal match, which she played immediately after the fiasco.

Shin Ah Lam expressed, “It was a difficult hour. I kept thinking of how hard I trained to get to the Olympics. I still don’t understand why my match did not end with an accurate decision.”

One columnist, Jim Caple, wrote, “Who can blame her? You train for the Olympics, you compete as best you can, you earn a shot at the gold medal — only to have it all end because an official can’t read a clock properly.”

As if subtly acknowledging their mistake, the ‘International Fencing Federation’ stated that they would be giving Shin Ah Lam a ‘special medal’ for her “aspiration to win and respect for the rules”. However, the athlete politely refused the award saying, “I don’t think it’ll make me feel any better because it’s not an Olympic medal. Because the decision was wrong, I cannot accept the results.”

Caple was not the only one who found both the ruling and situation ridiculous. Korean celebrities expressed their feelings concerning the unjust decision.

As much as South Koreans are upset over Shin Ah Lam’s situation, this was one of a few calls made by Olympic referees that caused outrage among Korean citizens.

Just two days before Shin Ah Lam’s unfortunate loss, Korean Judo athlete Jo Jun Ho’s victory was taken from him even after the announcement that he had won. Moments after his victory was announced, the chairman of referees gathered the three referees on stage and told them to revoke their decisions saying, “The call was wrong.” Jo Jun Ho accepted the referees’ decision as did his coach.

In addition, swimmer Park Tae Hwan experienced a similar setback when he was initially disqualified for a “false start” after taking first place in his group for the 400m freestyle preliminaries. After an appeal was made, the judges found upon review that no false start occurred.

Source + Image: ESPN, EDaily, Sports Seoul, Herald Economy