KUALA LUMPUR – Bullying athletes for any reason is wrong… period.
However, with the latest incident involving Japanese cyclist Shinji Nakano, who was shocked to see himself getting attacked on his social media platforms by Malaysian netizens with insults and abuse, it clearly shows hypocrisy.
This happened because many Malaysians believed that Nakano was the cause of the collision involving Malaysian track cyclist Shah Firdaus Sahrom, resulting in him not only missing a podium finish but also getting relegated from fourth place to sixth in the final of the keirin event at the Paris Olympics.
Shah Firdaus openly expressed his embarrassment and disappointment towards a large portion of Malaysians who cyberbullied Nakano, as they are good friends.
“Last night (or rather, the night before), he sent me a message saying he had been attacked on his social media account. I wasn’t aware of it at first, but when I checked, there were already thousands of comments.
“I hope netizens will stop because this is affecting us too. The incident did involve contact; there was body contact, which is common in keirin. He didn’t mean to hit me; it was just the G-force.
“In keirin, body contact can make it seem like someone is pushing, but it’s normal; it’s just a matter of whether you fall or not,” said Shah after arriving at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) yesterday.
Shah also clarified that Nakano had met him immediately after the race to apologise, rather than making the apology on TikTok, as that account was fake.
“That TikTok account is not his (Nakano); he spoke to me about it. We met after the race, and the account is used by people to make up stories. But I’m fine with him, and we have no issues.
“Keirin involves body contact and such, and while it might seem to viewers like he did it on purpose, everyone wants to win, so there are no hard feelings.
“What upsets me is that he thought Malaysians were nice because I had been friendly with him. When I visit Japan, he would show me around. When he felt this way, I felt quite bad.
“He messaged me, believing Malaysians are kind, and I felt embarrassed,” he added.
This is not the first time Malaysians have behaved in such a manner, as a similar incident occurred during the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics with Ukrainian athlete Maksym Koval being the victim.
The incident occurred when Koval was said to have taken the gold medal in the F20 shot put event, which was supposed to be won by Malaysian athlete Ziyad Zolkefli.
However, many do not know that Ziyad was competing under protest at that time because he arrived late to the waiting room before the competition started.
The cancellation of Ziyad’s gold medal was based on WPA Rule 5.5 – “Failure to Report to the Waiting Room,” which states that if an athlete does not report to the room at the time specified in the waiting room schedule, their result will be recorded as Did Not Start (DNS). – August 14, 2024