Chinese skater banned over obscene gesture
Song Xingyu raised middle finger in direction of rival fans
INTERACTIVE |
2009 Year in Review From the controversy over track star Caster Semenya's gender to Erin Hamlin's impressive luge title, take a look at the top stories from the Olympic sports world this past year. |
Special feature |
NBCSports.com |
Slideshow |
Who's hot on Twitter? Check out which of your favorite athletes have the best pages and most followers! NBCSports.com |
Slideshow |
Week in Sports Pictures The Saints triumph in the Super Bowl, Olympians work on final preparations for Vancouver, and more. more photos |
BEIJING - Chinese speed skater Song Xingyu has been banned from the sport for one year after making an obscene gesture toward fans from a rival province.
Song, who represents the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, raised his middle finger in the direction of fans from Jilin who were loudly accusing him of skating out of bounds in a 10,000-meter race.
Song, 20, will be banned from all training and competition until Jan. 6, 2010, the Heilongjiang sports committee said.
“During the sanction period, Song should meditate on his mistake deeply and write a self-criticism,” the committee said.
The incident occurred Sunday at a competition in Jilin’s capital Shenyang.
While Chinese athletes are considered generally well behaved at international meets, competition at the provincial level — which often decides places on national teams — is often dirty, involving doping, assaults on athletes and alleged bribery of officials.
- Discuss Story On Newsvine
-
Rate Story:
LowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM OLYMPIC SPORTS |
| Add Olympic Sports headlines to your news reader: |
Sponsored links





