Scandals & Feuds ·
Sarita Devi’s bronze-medal protest in Incheon
After her September 30, 2014 semifinal loss to Park Ji-na, the Indian boxer refused to wear her bronze, then placed it around Park’s neck. A committee spokesman said members present were offended.
On October 1, 2014, Laishram Sarita Devi went to the Asian Games medal podium in Incheon, South Korea, but would not let an official hang the bronze around her neck. The Indian lightweight boxer was protesting the judging of her semifinal loss to South Korea’s Park Ji-na the previous day.
Devi walked toward the podium in tears, her arms folded and her head down. When the bronze was presented, she held up her hands and said she would not accept it. Officials twice tried to put it around her neck; she refused both times. She remained at the ceremony while the other medals were awarded.
Then she stepped off the podium, took the bronze from an official and approached Park, who had won silver. Devi went to shake her hand. As Park bowed, Devi put the bronze around the South Korean boxer’s neck.
“I said, ‘This is for you and all Korea, because you only deserve a bronze,’” Devi told AFP afterward.
Devi returned to her place on the podium. Park followed and tried to give the medal back. When Devi refused, Park placed it on the podium while the Chinese anthem played for the gold medallist.
The immediate response from the organisers was disapproval. A spokesman told AFP that members of the Incheon Asian Games Organising Committee who were present had been “offended” by Devi’s gesture. “If she wanted to refuse the medal, she should have not come to the ceremony,” he said.
Devi described her appearance there differently. “It was a protest for all the sportsmen and women of the world against injustice in sport,” she told AFP.