Professional skaters Lim Eun Soo, 16, and Mariah Bell, 22, collided during rehearsal for the ISU World Championships on Monday. According Lim’s management All That Sports, Lim was skating on the edge of the rink after completing a turn when Bell channeled her inner Tanya Harding and “kicked and stabbed Lim’s left calf with her skate blades.” Says her management, “Lim Eun Soo was skating close to the edge as much as possible to not interfere with other skaters. It seems it was intentional, considering how Bell came from behind.”
Lim was treated and decided to skate through the pain. She ranked #5 while Bell ranked #6.
According to All That Sports, Bell has been bullying her continuously during preparation for the championships. They added, “In the past, we believed we should just ignore it but it got severely bad as the championships approached,” and said, “It wouldn’t have been this bad if she apologized for once.”
Since the report came out, Lim’s South Korean fans flooded Bell’s Instagram with some posting death threats. If I was Mariah Bell and I could read Korean, I’d be terrified.
Meanwhile, Adam Rippon, who’s skated with Bell, says all this is clickbait.
This article is click bait. I’ve been to the rink multiple times and NO ONE has been bullying anyone. Stop creating s**t and spreading rumors. What happened in the warm up was an accident. Don’t distract both Eunsoo and Mariah from the competition.
— Adam Rippon (@AdamRippon) March 20, 2019
This also isn’t a comment directed towards you @lynnneposts – towards to people writing the article. Mariah and Eunsoo are competitive and train all the time together at home. Bullying is something Rafael would never tolerate.
— Adam Rippon (@AdamRippon) March 20, 2019
Figure skating hasn’t been this exciting since the Tanya Harding story arc. It might even take me two days to forget this happened instead of one!