A bullying scandal involving South Korean speed skaters is creating quite a bit of buzz around Peyongchang in the Winter Olympics. According to USA Today, reports have surfaced of two speed skaters picking on their teammate during the women's team pursuit where squad member Noh Seon-yeong was left behind. Her teammates, Kim Bo-reum and Park Ji-woo, shunned her after the race while Noh cried.




In this event, the three skaters are supposed to skate together alternating who takes the front spot. That wasn't the case for the Korean team, which left Noh behind as she came in four seconds behind the rest of the squad.The speed skater was criticized on national television, and it wasn't long before a petition was created calling for Kim and Park to be "banned from international competitions including the Olympics."


“It is a clear national disgrace that such people with a personality problem are representing a country in the Olympics,” the petition read. “We are petitioning that Kim Bo-reum and Park Ji-woo forfeit their rights as national athletes".The petition garnered more than 400,000 signatures as of Wednesday morning, and Bo-reum has already lost a sponsorship deal as a result her actions. It was her post-race comments that really caught the attention of Korean fans, although, she did apologize for "hurting the feelings of many people."



"We were doing quite well,” Kim said, after the race. “But at the end … we have a big gap at the back. She couldn’t keep up.”
The team was defeated in the quarterfinal and their time was too slow for a semifinal spot, but they will compete again in the consolation round of the pursuit on Wednesday.