Taipei-Taiwanese speed skater Huang Yu-ting (???) announced Saturday that she plans to retire from competitive sport after the Beijing Winter Olympics.
“I feel exhausted both physically and mentally,” Huang said in a televised interview.
The 33-year-old speed skater will make an appearance in the women’s 500-meter race Sunday evening, after finishing 26th in the 1,500-meter competition on Feb. 7.
She is also set to compete in the women’s 1,000-meter race on Feb. 17.
Prior to the start of the games, she came under heavy attack online from Taiwanese for wearing a Chinese national team skinsuit in a training video she posted on Jan. 23.
The video was not noticed by netizens until Feb. 3, when it went viral and drew an angry response, forcing Huang to take it down.
The skater has since apologized, and while the Sports Administration chided Huang for not showing enough awareness of the sensitivity of cross-Taiwan Strait politics, it did not punish or reprimand her for the video and allowed her to compete for Taiwan as planned.
Huang expressed certainty about her retirement.
“Especially after this ‘incident,’ I’m even more certain about [retiring],” she said in the interview, adding that she felt the time was right to leave after years of competing.
She said the whole incident was a misunderstanding, and that she would provide an explanation after the games.
Beijing is Huang’s second Olympics, after having also competed in the same three events she is doing this year at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Originally an inline speed skater, Huang switched to the ice in 2015 and has won gold and silver medals in both disciplines at several international events, including the Four Continents Speed Skating Championships, the Asian Games, and the World Games.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel