Featured Image Credit: Discovery+ / Eurosport / ARUN SANKAR / AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Olympics, World News, Europe, Sport, Viral, China, Social Media
Tom Earnshaw
Topics: Olympics, World News, Europe, Sport, Viral, China, Social Media
There was a large scuffle during the 2024 Paris Olympics hockey after a player 'rifles' the ball at an opponent following the final whistle.
The controversial moment came in the final stages of a hotly contested match between China and Belgium in the women's field hockey event at the Paris Games.
With the scores tied at 1-1 at the end of the fourth quarter, the final whistle of the semi-final match was blown by umpires Amber Church and Aleisha Neumann.
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But instead of taking the whistle as a way of marking the end of regulation time, China's Fan Yunxia somewhat bizarrely smashed the ball towards Belgium's Delphine-Daphne Marien.
The ball hit her in the leg as she cowered to try and protect her body, not knowing where it was going to hit her, before falling to the ground in pain.
It was Marien and her teammates who aggressively confronted Fan to demand why she did what she did, with Fan's compatriots coming to her physical defence to stop the Belgians from surrounding her.
"Well, that’s a little unnecessary from Fan. She just hammered the ball as the hooter sounded and hit one of the Belgian players," said Eurosport commentator Charlie Brougham.
"The whistle goes, and she just rifles it straight at the player."
Boos rang from the Stade Yves-du-Manoir as commentator Charlie Brougham added: "Everybody’s come out on the pitch.
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"It was reckless from Fan, I think it was frustration more than anything else, she didn’t mean to hit the player."
Following the incident, a VAR review led to Fan and Belgium's Judith Vandermeiren both being handed a yellow card for their roles in the incident - which meant they were both forced to spend 10 minutes in the sin bin.
The match eventually went to a penalty shootout, with China missing their first penalty.
But their luck quickly changed, with Belgium missing their third, fourth, and fifth penalties after burying the first two in what was a short-lived advantage.
China went through to the final where they will face the Netherlands.
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Belgium will go up against Argentina in the bronze medal match, with both of them taking place on Friday (9 August).
And sports fans took to social media to give their thoughts on what had happened, with reactions being somewhat of a mixed bag.
"Good refereeing. Ball strike was dangerous but she didn’t intend to hurt her, as she was striking the ball as the hooter went off," one viewer said.
"Therefore the Belgium shouldn’t have reacted the way she did so that deserved a yellow."
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A second posted: "Listen to the hooter. It went as she was striking the ball."
While someone else said: "WTF do you have to do to get a red card then?"
And a fourth added: "Don't worry, the Dutch will destroy them."