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Olympian accused of ultimate disrespect after what he was caught doing on camera

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Slowly but surely, 2018 is building its case of being the year of the poor sport.

Super Bowl LII had the 10th highest viewership in the history of television, and one of the biggest storylines after the game was a controversy over whether or not Tom Brady shook the hand of the winning quarterback after the game.

Now, accusations of poor sportsmanship have trickled into the Winter Olympics.

Short-track speed skater Sjinkie Knegt of the Netherlands was accused of flipping the bird during a post-race photo-op.

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Knegt, who came in second to South Korea’s Lim Hyojun, posed with Lim and bronze medalist Semen Elistratov while carrying plush dolls of the Pyeongchang Games mascot.

Shortly after the photo circulated, it didn’t take long for fans to notice Knegt’s right hand.

For some reason, despite the rest of his fingers clasping the plush, Knegt’s middle finger is curiously pointed towards his competitors.

Some fans immediately jumped to Knegt’s defense.

In fairness to Knegt, it does seem like a fairly innocuous gesture.

Perhaps the cameras just happened to catch him while he was reaching for something and people tried to make something out of nothing, as is commonly done on social media.

“It looked like I put up the middle finger. It’s not intended … I just looked very bad in the photo, but it was not on purpose. I was just holding the medal,” Knegt told the Korea Times.

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Fair enough. Perhaps the 28-year old Knegt made an honest mistake at the worst possible time and a camera just happened to catch it.

Unfortunately for Knegt, it’s a little difficult to give him the benefit of the doubt because the middle-fingered salute seems to be a popular gesture for him, especially in the Olympics.

Knegt was disqualified from the 5,000-meter relay event during the 2014 Winter Games because of his middle fingers.

That’s fairly concrete and conclusive evidence of Knegt flipping off Russia’s Viktor Ahn during the qualifying event for the 2014 relay event.

Knegt came in second during this year’s 1,500-meter race by a mere .07 seconds.

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Bryan Chai has written news and sports for The Western Journal for more than five years and has produced more than 1,300 stories. He specializes in the NBA and NFL as well as politics.
Bryan Chai has written news and sports for The Western Journal for more than five years and has produced more than 1,300 stories. He specializes in the NBA and NFL as well as politics. He graduated with a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona. He is an avid fan of sports, video games, politics and debate.
Birthplace
Hawaii
Education
Class of 2010 University of Arizona. BEAR DOWN.
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
Languages Spoken
English, Korean
Topics of Expertise
Sports, Entertainment, Science/Tech




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