Su's silver medal and golden virtues glitter

It's sometimes inevitable that judges' decisions will be debated after contests – especially when Olympic glory is on the line.

But for Chinese snowboarder Su Yiming, even silver glitters.

Su won a silver for snowboard slopestyle at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, but his golden virtues showed in his professionalism and modesty, even as on social networking sites his fans unleashed a wave of anger at his being "robbed" of a gold medal.

Su's fans grew even more frustrated seeing Iztok Sumatic, the Head Judge for Olympic Snowboarding, shared his perspective on Monday's controversial result, saying that——

"Basically, we judged what we saw. And what we saw was a grab and a well executed switch frontside 16 – from the point of view of a camera that we were given. That's the first thing to say. The second thing that is important to mention is that we need to make a decision in seconds, because it's live. We are being pushed to be on time. We need to put the score as soon as possible, so everything is coordinated with the whole show."

Although Su scored the medal-winning 88.70 points in his second of three runs, becoming the only competitor to perform a triple cork 1800 in Winter Olympic history, many netizens insist that the judge underscored Su's first ride where he scored just 78.38 despite a "flawless performance".

The controversy erupted after similar sentiments were shared by overseas snowboard experts. BBC commentator Ed Leigh said Su was denied gold over a "glaring judging error".

British expert Ed Leigh pointed out that the gold medalist, Canada's Max Parrot, had grabbed his knee instead of his board during his frontside 1440 in his second run, where he scored 90.96 points overall.

Although many were expressing their outrage on Chinese social networking sites, Su was at his humble best, saying it was a precious moment to be able to take part in the Winter Olympics in his home country, to be able to compete with his childhood idol, and to stand with them on the podium.

Su also explained why he did not get a higher score for his third run, which should be enough to calm public sentiments.

Su and his coach Yasuhiro Sato came out to soothe the vitriol comments from fans again saying they understand the difficulty in judging and saying they value the joy of competition more than the results.

It is not unusual for a referee's decision to lead to a controversy. However, the public should also note that even those regrets are also a part of sports.

While cheering for their favorite players, ordinary audiences should also respect the referee's decisions and the professionalism of the competition.

The game is still on. Let us take this opportunity to enjoy the performances by the world's leading athletes.

The author is a writer with China Daily