He's a BEAST! Russia went 1-2 in that event, it was intense & exciting! There are only a few events that I watch that get my heart racing like that match did.
It's funny that Russia bought both of those winners though. Ahn from South Korea & Vladimir Grigorev from Poland were both convinced by Russia to join their team.
Is Russia the new New York Yankees? HaHa
You have no idea what Ahn had to go through to compete at the Olympics. It's a long story. Ever since Korea became a dominant country in the short track since 2002, as you can look it up and see who won all the World Championships, Korea had two clans within the Short Track Skating Union. Let's call them clan A and clan B. Ahn was part of clan B. But for 2006 Olympics, clan A's coach became the national coach for South Korea. But just like any other sports, athletes from both clans will compete for the country. The coach was sabotaging clan B's athletes so that his clan athletes can win. But Ahn fought through this and won all 3 gold medals in 2006 Winter Olympics. If you look at 2006 Winter Olympics 1000m Short Track, even when Korea wins both gold and silver, Ahn and Lee(member from clan A) stay away from each other while holding the Korean flag. After the Olympics, when the entire team arrived at the airport, Ahn's father attacked the coach bcz the coach tried to sabotage his son. Ever since then, two clans were bitter towards each other and Ahn couldn't train comfortably. Anytime he skates, he was distracted and disturbed constantly. Then in 2008, he got injured and there's lot of speculation that it was done through actions ordered by clan A. Because of this injury, he couldn't compete in 2008 and also, 2009, which made him fail to qualify for 2010 Vancouver Olympics. He realized that the moment he recovers, same thing is gonna happen and he won't qualify for 2014 Olympics. So the entire clan B decided to either retire or find alternative solutions. Coach for clan B moved to Russia as he was paid lot of money and he realized how comfortably he can live while having respectful, disciplined Russian short track skaters willing to learn. He advised Ahn to come over as well. Ahn however, wanted to move to the US but since US have good short track skating organization, they didn't really think getting Ahn will make a huge difference for the US while US can't match the price of what Russia was offering to Ahn. So Ahn decided to go to Russia. Russia also decided to pay for his injury. Ever since Ahn came over to Russia, he became very bitter towards Korean short track union that he knew he MUST win. Right now, the coach who moved to Russia, he's moving to Kazakhstan or Ukraine. Although Korea regrets it and president is frustrated about this incident that she's willing to fire many short track officials and tear the union apart to fix the organization so that they can get their head straight for 2018, none of clan B members want to come back to Korea. While the coach mentions that his goal is to popularize short track among other countries, I honestly think his real reason is he doesn't wanna go back to Korea anymore to deal with those assholes
Ahn currently has two younger brothers. The middle one is 18 years old and he's also a short track skater too but the Korean short track skating union, which are corrupted union, are not recruiting him just over the fact that he's Ahn's brother. Because of this, he's also planning to defect to Russia too. Right now, even more than half of South Korea are rooting for Ahn over their own country. Even myself, as Korean-American, is not only rooting for Ahn, but also, I don't want South Korean men short track skaters to win a single medal because I believe this is a medicine that the country needs to take to realize their stupidity and an opportunity to fix their organization and get ready for 2018 that'll be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. And it's going exactly the way I wanted it. Korea not winning a single medal in men short track while Viktor Ahn winning 1 bronze and 1 gold. Those medals that could've been Korea's, went to Russia because of their stupidity. I love it.
Ahn gave up Korean citizenship to acquire Russian citizenship and he plans to live in Russia for rest of his life and he'll become Russia's coach after or starting 2015. Ever since he moved to Russia, he's able to train comfortably, while barraged with respect and love.
Korean short track skating union initially didn't care when Ahn moved because they thought to themselves that they got so many young guns and good short track skaters that even without him, Korea still wins World Championships. But what they didnt' realize is, when they drove him away, he's gonna come back stronger with bitterness to beat down Korea while leaking all the skills, techniques, that only Koreans knew that gave them the edge over other countries, to Russia and soon, other countries. Because of this, Russia immediately became one of best countries in short track.