Hungarian speed skater banned over ‘racist’ China comment

Hungary’s Csaba Burjan celebrates his team’s gold and new Olympic record in the men’s 5,000m relay short track speed skating A final event during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games, at the Gangneung Ice Arena in Gangneung on February 22, 2018. (Photo by Roberto SCHMIDT / AFP)

A Hungarian Olympic speed-skating champion was banned for a year Wednesday by his local federation after posting a derogatory remark about China on social media that prompted his Chinese coach to quit.

Csaba Burjan, 25, wrote the words “F*ckin China” in English on top of a video he posted on Instagram of a long queue at Shanghai airport before a World Cup event last December.

Hungary’s Chinese national team head coach Zhang Jing resigned after the incident, accusing Burjan of making an “intolerable…racist remark about China”.

“Deeply sorry for yesterday’s post,” said the skater on Instagram afterwards. “I was tired after a long journey, I didn’t mean it,” he added.

The Hungarian National Skating Federation (MOKSZ) apologized to Zhang for the Hungarian’s remark in December and said in a statement Wednesday that Burjan had “committed a disciplinary and ethical offence” without providing further details.

It said it had banned the athlete from the national team and all competitions run by MOKSZ until next December.

Burjan was a member of Hungary’s 5,000-metre relay men’s team at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, that won the country’s first ever gold medal, while Zhang was their coach.