--- title: Olympics: North Korean Speed Skater Appears to Trip Opponent description: North Korean speed skater Jong Kwang Bom appeared to try to trip his Japanese opponent Keita Watanabe at the 2018 Winter Olympics. canonical: https://time.com/5168982/olympics-north-korean-speed-skater-trips-japanese-opponent/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-21T20:16:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:50:49.285Z og:title: Speed Skater Appears to Trip Opponent After Falling At Olympics og:description: Jong Kwang Bom grabbed the skate of his Japanese rival og:url: https://time.com/5168982/olympics-north-korean-speed-skater-trips-japanese-opponent/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt798dfadde89ba3d6/69892872929fad5a0abefb4b/north-korea-speed-skater-jong-kwang.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: North-Korean-Speed-Skater-Jong-Kwang-Bom og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Speed Skater Appears to Trip Opponent After Falling At Olympics twitter:description: Jong Kwang Bom grabbed the skate of his Japanese rival twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt798dfadde89ba3d6/69892872929fad5a0abefb4b/north-korea-speed-skater-jong-kwang.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # North Korean Speed Skater Appears to Trip Japanese Opponent After Falling At Olympics  by [Megan McCluskey](/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Feb 21, 2018 8:16 PM CUT  Jong Kwang Bom of North Korea loses balance during a men's 500-meter short track speed skating competition at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on Feb. 20, 2018. Jong Kwang Bom of North Korea loses balance during a men's 500-meter short track speed skating competition at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on Feb. 20, 2018.Kyodo News via Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Feb 21, 2018 8:16 PM CUT [North Korean](http://time.com/5164622/2018-winter-olympics-korean-history/ "undefined") speed skater Jong Kwang Bom appeared to try to trip his [Japanese opponent](http://time.com/5154824/olympics-2018-doping-suspension-japan-speed-skating-kei-saito/ "undefined") Keita Watanabe during a men’s 500m short track heat on Tuesday, prompting [Olympic](http://time.com/5097770/countries-with-most-winter-olympic-medals/ "undefined") officials to restart the race. After falling within the first few seconds of the event, Kwang Bom reached out and grabbed the skate of Watanabe in an apparent attempt to take down the rival skater. However, for his part, Watanabe said that he doesn’t think the move was calculated. “I believe it was unintentional,” he explained, according to [Yahoo Sports](https://sports.yahoo.com/north-korean-speed-skater-falls-gets-disqualified-might-even-tried-take-japanese-foe-132419964.html "undefined"). “His hand happened to be by my skate as he fell down.” Japanese coach Jonathan Guilmette seemed to agree. “I don’t know what was his intention,” he said. “It is really hard to judge what’s the intention. I don’t know if he tried to grab the skates or if he is just trying to hold onto something like a reflex—there are so many hands all over in our sport. That was a reflex thing more than trying to trip over someone else.” Despite the restart, Kwang Bom ended up being disqualified from the race after bumping into Watanabe and falling once again during the skaters’ second run. Watch the clip below. > [](https://twitter.com/Coach%5FBeal/status/966204746896945152) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5168982/olympics-north-korean-speed-skater-trips-japanese-opponent/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5168982/olympics-north-korean-speed-skater-trips-japanese-opponent/"},"headline":"North Korean Speed Skater Appears to Trip Japanese Opponent After Falling At Olympics","datePublished":"2018-02-21T20:16:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:50:49.285Z","description":"Jong Kwang Bom grabbed the skate of his Japanese rival","url":"https://time.com/5168982/olympics-north-korean-speed-skater-trips-japanese-opponent/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Winter Olympics","2018 Pyeongchang Olympics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt798dfadde89ba3d6/69892872929fad5a0abefb4b/north-korea-speed-skater-jong-kwang.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt798dfadde89ba3d6/69892872929fad5a0abefb4b/north-korea-speed-skater-jong-kwang.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"North-Korean-Speed-Skater-Jong-Kwang-Bom","caption":"North Korean speed skater Jong Kwang Bom falls at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics","creditText":"Kyodo News via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5168982/olympics-north-korean-speed-skater-trips-japanese-opponent/","name":"North Korean Speed Skater Appears to Trip Japanese Opponent After Falling At Olympics"}}]}] ```