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Dutch speed skater Sjinkie Knegt found himself in hot water after photos from the post-race ceremony for the men’s 1,500m appeared to show him giving the middle finger to his fellow medallists. Knegt, who finished with silver, denied the accusations and insisted his hand placement was accidental. South Korea’s Lim Hyo-jun won gold and Semion Andreyevich Elistratov, of the Olympic Athletes from Russia, captured bronze.

“It looked like I put up the middle finger. It’s not intended … I just looked very bad in the photo, but it was not on purpose. I was just holding the medal,” he told reporters at the medal ceremony, via the Korea Times.

The newspaper says Koreans are not being so forgiving of Knegt: He has a track record of doing this very thing. He got in a lot of trouble in Sochi for flipping the double birds to speed skater Victor Ahn for celebrating Russia’s relay victory after crossing the line. Olympic officials weren’t very pleased with him four years ago – he lost his relay silver medal and a bronze from a different event.

Photo by ROBERT MICHAEL / AFP/Getty Images