SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Yu-na was a perfect heroine for her country. Like postwar South Korea, she rose from a humble start, skating on a tatty rink as a 6-year-old, to win gold for a nation that had felt sidelined in a sport dominated by Western athletes.

So when she was dethroned in Sochi by a Russian teenager in a much-debated decision, it was not surprising that Ms. Kim’s country, which has long tied international sports achievements to self-worth, reacted with anger.

A popular novelist said he would remember these Games as the “Suchi Olympics,” using the word for “humiliation.” A petition on Change.org calling for an investigation by the International Skating Union drew more than 1.9 million signatures, most of them from South Koreans. And many online commentators said Ms. Kim had been cheated of a gold medal because her country was “small and weak.”

But at least so far, the fuss appeared mostly to end there.

South Koreans have in the past responded with occasional outrage at what they perceived as biased rulings at the Olympics. A fencer who felt wronged at the 2012 Olympic Games in London refused to leave the piste, and the police once felt compelled to protect the United States Embassy in Seoul after a Korean speed skater lost to an American. But this time, there seemed to be a conscious effort to pull back.