South Korea and Japan celebrate skaters’ bonhomie

GANGNEUNG: A photo of rival skaters from South Korea and Japan hugging each other after a tense race has touched many hearts in the two neighbours with a bitter history, with many including Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe applauding their friendship.

Japanese skater Nao Kodaira stormed to gold in the women’s 500 metre race on Sunday night, beating defending champion and hometown favourite Lee Sang-hwa. But a picture of Kodaira hugging and comforting her rival, who was in tears holding a South Korean flag, has melted hearts in both nations. Bilateral relations remain strained due to the shared past in which Japan colonised South Korea from 1910-1945.

“The sight of two of you embracing each other after the race and congratulating each other was really wonderful,” Abe told her yesterday during a phone call to congratulate Kodaira on her first Olympic win.

Japanese viewers tweeted that the scene brought them to tears, while one wrote: “The scene of the two embracing is something all humanity has been waiting for.” Newspaper headlines in Japan also lauded the gesture, saying “Embrace for Rival Lee” and commenting on their bond.

In South Korea, photos of the two were prominently carried in major newspapers with headlines such as “A borderless friendship” and “Lee’s tears and Kodaira’s consolation-The rivals’ beautiful finale.”

Thousands took to the Internet and social media to praise their gesture as a true friendship and sportsmanship. “I was sobbing while watching Kodaira and Lee strolling around the ice rink after the race. That scene really grasped the core Olympic value,” wrote one commentator on Naver, South Korea’s biggest Internet portal. Others heraled the friendship of the two women as a sign of a real “Peace Olympics,” instead of the thaw in inter-Korean relations lauded by the country’s president. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has termed the Pyeongchang Winter games the “Peace Olympics” for bringing the two Koreas together and helping ease tensions on the peninsula after a tense standoff over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programme.—

— AFP GANGNEUNG: Gold medallist Japan’s Nao Kodaira (R) celebrates with silver medallist South Korea’s Lee Sang-Hwa after the women’s 500m speed skating event during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games.