Asian Games 2023: South Korean badminton star Kim Ga-eun denies mocking China’s He Bingjiao for crying
- The 25-year-old is ‘heartbroken it has become a topic’ as she explains incident after beating He to seal gold in team final
- But Chinese netizens do not buy ‘bully’ Kim’s explanation, and round on her again for supposedly trying to ‘deceive’ people
South Korean badminton player Kim Ga-eun has denied imitating and mocking her tearful Chinese opponent He Bingjiao, after a post-match incident went viral at the Asian Games in Hangzhou.
The hosts were stunned 3-0 by South Korea in the women’s team badminton final last Sunday, with the whitewash played out in front of a partisan crowd on China’s National Day.
World No 1 An Se-young dominated Olympic champion and world No 3 Chen Yufei in the first match of the tie, before the world No 2 pairing of Lee So-hee and Baek Ha-na beat China’s top-ranked Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan in straight games to put South Korea on the cusp of victory.
Kim then secured the gold medal with a 22–20, 21–17 win over He, who broke down in tears as the South Korean team ran on court to celebrate at the Binjiang Gymnasium.
World No 18 Kim was later rounded on by netizens, after footage showed her raising her head and briefly pretending to cry in an exchange with her coach on the sidelines as they celebrated, which was deemed disrespectful by Chinese fans.
The 25-year-old Kim was asked about the incident by Korean media on Thursday after her 2-1 defeat by Chen Yufei in the women’s singles quarterfinals.
