China’s short track speed skater Fan Kexin, 28, failed to advance from the women’s 500m quarterfinals at Beijing 2022 on Monday. She might have taken Canada’s Alyson Charles, 23, out of the event as well, were it not for a retroactive review. Fan had won her first Olympic gold two days earlier.

Slow-motion replays from Beijing’s Capital Indoor Stadium showed Kim Boutin, 27, another Canadian, leading the pack of speedsters, with Charles second and Fan third. As the group rounded a bend, Fan appeared to steady herself with her left hand but came into contact with a black lane marker, which she seemed to flick into Charles’ left skate as it landed. Charles slipped and tumbled out the race, but Fan also fell.

Judges later determined that Charles—seen with her head in her hands—was not at fault for the collision and would have placed second, enough to qualify for the semifinals. Audiences watching at home accused Fan of unsportsmanlike conduct and even cheating, however.

On Weibo, China’s main social media platform, users defended the Chinese skater and blamed another Canadian for the mishap. Florence Brunelle, 18, who was following close behind, pushed Fan’s arm with her leg, they said. This explanation didn’t address Fan’s apparent flick of her wrist to send the lane marker forward, but Brunelle was later penalized for a lane infraction anyway.

“If you look closely, Fan Kexin’s arm was pushed forward by the Canadian athlete’s knee,” one Weibo user wrote. “Fan Kexin’s arm was pushed into the path of the marker, which bounced into the skate of the Canadian athlete in second place, causing her fall. Third-placed Fan Kexin couldn’t avoid her and also fell.”

But the reactions from Weibo users, which ranged from lamenting Fan’s performance to calling for Brunelle to be banned, were far from consistent.

“This is selective blindness,” another user posted. “If this were an American or Japanese athlete flicking a marker under the skate of a Chinese athlete, every old lady in the countryside would hear about it.”

Italy’s Arianna Fontana went on to claim gold in the women’s 500m final, with Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands earning silver and Canada’s Boutin claiming bronze.

For Fan, who is from the province of Heilongjiang in northeast China, Beijing 2022 is already her best ever games. On Saturday, she helped China to gold in the mixed team relay ahead of Italy and Hungary.