Park gets enormous outpouring of fan support

Park Tae-hwan

Koreans showed tremendous support for swimmer Park Tae-hwan, who captured silver in the 400-meter freestyle in the London Olympics Saturday after a disqualification ruling was overturned.

Despite having fallen short of his goal to earn a second straight gold in the 400m race following the first at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, millions of messages encouraging him were posted on social networking and portal sites throughout the rollercoaster day.

“What about the four years of hard training Park went through for the race?” questioned a blogger, following the news of Park’s disqualification. “I cannot imagine how upset Park must be, the ruling must have been a tremendous shock to the young swimmer,” said a comment.

Some people even raised speculation that Chinese judges were behind the disqualification ruling, which was later found to be incorrect.

Korean officials appealed the ruling and it was finally overturned after a further video review by the swimming governing body FINA.

“What a relief; let’s all cheer for Park in the finals!” said a comment following the announcement that the 23-year-old swimmer would be taking part in the final race.

Despite Park having taken the lead for the first 300m, rival Chinese swimmer Sun Yang overtook him and claimed the Olympic title, with Park falling second.

U.S. swimmer Peter Vanderkaay took the bronze.

Park had kept his composure until the award ceremony, but became emotional as he spoke in an interview afterward. “I am disappointed but I did my best and would like to congratulate Sun Yang on winning the gold medal. I will get ready for the 200m race so that I can show my best,” he said with tears welling up in his eyes.

Many Korean celebrities as well as the public congratulated Park and offered words of comfort. “I am proud and grateful to Park who did his best despite the difficulties he faced. To us he is a diamond medallist,” said Yoon Il-sang, a composer and singer.

The public also showed an outraged response to a tweet by Lee Na-hyun, a fashion model. “He deserves it,” she said after Park was known to have been disqualified, prompting a wave of angry remarks and criticism from thousands of users. <The Korea Times/Kim Bo-eun>

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