hankyoreh

Representing South Korean short track speed skater Shim Suk-hee

“The state should sense its responsibility.”

“This happened because there was no reporting center? What difference does it make if they increase education or permanently expel him? The damage is already done. [The state] should keenly sense how this is their responsibility. The reason things have arrived at this point is because they’ve been irresponsibly ducking things [so far], acting like it’s enough to chop off the lizard’s tail and attributing the whole thing to corruption by the specific individuals.”

Speaking in the offices of the law firm Shin & Kim in Seoul’s Jung (Central) district on Jan. 9, attorney Im Sang-hyeok, 50, insisted the state was “nowhere to be found” in the case of national short-track speed skating team member Shim Suk-hee, 22, who suffered repeated sexual assaults by her former coach Cho Jae-beom, starting in her second year of high school.

“Legally, there is the matter of the managing director. Members of the national team are representatives of state, and the state sends them to international competitions as needed,” Im explained.

“They put athletes in this controlled system and demand good performance, while turning a blind eye to the crimes that take place within that system,” he continued.

“That is not an individual issue. It can’t be rooted out until the state first recognizes it as the state’s issue.”

Im became Shim’s attorney in summer of last year. The athlete found herself in need of support as the case of her assault by Cho at the Jincheon national training center in North Chungcheong Province ahead of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics escalated into a courtroom battle. In the first trial, the court placed Cho in custody with a 10-month prison sentence last September on charges including habitual injury.

“It felt really close to home for me as a parent to know about the abuse Shim Suk-hee suffered,” said Im, the father of two sons in elementary and middle school.

“Seeing [athletes like] Shim Suk-hee or Kim Yu-na, parents develop dreams of [their children] becoming athletes and entrust them to teachers,” he continued. “When I heard that [Shim] had suffered sexual assault too, I couldn’t fathom how it was true. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe Shim Suk-hee – I was shocked that such a thing could happen in the Republic of Korea in the year 2019.”

Shim did not open up about the sexual assault, which left a lifetime’s worth of scars on her psyche. Even during her legal battle with Cho, she remained quiet. It was only after the detained Cho refused to acknowledge his responsibility that she finally summoned the courage.

“During the second trial, we heard that with Cho submitted a settlement and other factors, the assault issue could end up resulting in a suspended sentence,” Im explained. “We also went back and forth about reaching a settlement and getting what we could get. That’s when Shim told her father about the sexual assaults.”

It was a huge shock to Shims’ father, who had supported his daughter throughout her life.

“After all his support for his daughter over the year, the father was tremendously shocked and angry after learning about this,” Im said. “Right now, he’s holding up by taking medications for the stress.”

As soon as Shim revealed the sexual assault she had suffered, Im appointed a female attorney for in-depth one-to-one meetings with Shim. By working around the clock and on weekends, he was able to lodge additional accusations for the sexual assault case in December.

Im lauded Shim for her courage here.

“Based solely on the assault, the trial could have easily ended up something minor,” he said. “[The sexual assault] could have ended up buried if as the victim, she had thought something like ‘What can I do?’ or ‘Some people think he was hitting me to improve my competitive capabilities’ or ‘Maybe I’m overreacting.’ But she was resolute. She showed truly great resolution and bravery.”

In the past, it has often been the athletes who have ultimately suffered in cases involving abuse or sexual assault by trainers. In 2015, a luge athlete surnamed Kwon won a case claiming damages from a coach accused of habitual assault. But the athlete was unable to prepare for the competition to select national team members (which takes place annually), and was unable to fulfill the dream of competing on the national team.

“You can make an accusation and even go to trial, but the verdict is meaningless. There’s a widespread belief that athletes will only suffer if they speak out,” Im said.

“In [Kwon’s] case, there was no protection at all from the federation. The Korean Sport and Olympic Committee also turned a blind eye,” he added. “It gets treated as an individual problem rather than a structural one.”

In short-track speed skating and other ice events, athletes are typically trained by individual coaches. Barring conflicting interests, those relationships may last a lifetime. Shim began training under Cho Jae-beom in her first year of elementary school; by middle school, she was leading nationally. But rather than the joy of victory, she was left with a deeper burden of nightmarish memories she would prefer to forget.

Im also blasted Second Vice Minister Roh Tae-kang’s announcement of the lifetime expulsion of sexual assault perpetrators and other measures at an Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism emergency press conference that day, which the attorney called “nothing new.”

“There’s no substance [to the measures]. It’s irresponsible,” Im said. “It does no good after the damage done, when they didn’t prevent the problem from happening in the first place.”

“The victimization took place in the university locker room and the women’s locker room at the national training center, which is under the state’s direct supervision,” he continued. “If they really viewed this as their responsibility, they should have visited those darkened rooms and paid attention to what was going on.”

“Was this really none of their business? This incident will need to be an occasion for examining how far the legal liability extends for management and oversight and how much responsibility the people up the line should bear.”

“Whenever an incident like this happens, there are people who want it to go away quickly. They want to duck their responsibility. The problem will only be solved when all those people are gone,” Im insisted.

Shim Suk-hee is currently training at the Taereung national training center as she prepares for the World Cup and national team selection this February.

“Shim Suk-hee’s facial expression looks a lot brighter than it was before. She’s training hard too,” said an official with the Korean Skating Union.

Im explained, “She’s been dealing with this all alone, thinking about things like the additional damage she would suffer as a woman, retribution from the perpetrator, and her own family.”

“The physical and mental consequences have been enormous. But she’s drawing strength now from all of the encouragement and support she is getting from many people,” he added.

Kim’s strong comeback holds great significance. She also has more time left in her career as an athlete.

“For Shim Suk-see to compete better, the public has a necessary role,” Im said. “They need to support and root for her and provide encouragement so that capable athletes can show their ability.”

By Kim Chang-keum, staff reporter

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