hankyoreh

On Jan. 9

“Shocking” is the only word for it. On Jan. 9, the South Korean government announced a long list of measures in response to allegations that former national short track speed skating team coach Cho Jae-beom committed repeated sexual assaults against athlete Shim Suk-hee. But as Second Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Roh Tae-kang himself said, it is clear that “all of the institutions and measures the government has developed in the past have proven basically ineffective.”

Now that Shim has summoned her bravery in the “earnest hope that such things never again happen in the sports world,” this is a moment that calls for a just response from South Korean society.

On the evening of Jan. 8, Shim’s legal representatives with the law firm Shin & Kim announced that they had lodged charges against Cho – who is currently serving time for habitual assault against four athletes – accusing him of violating the Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles from Sexual Abuse. In their accusation, the attorneys claimed that Cho had sexually assaulted Shim multiple times since she was 17 years old.

Cho’s side has denied the charges – but there should be no reason for Shim to dredge up painful memories that could end up causing secondary damages themselves. As horrifying as it is to witness this clear-cut abuse of authority to sexually victimize an athlete Cho himself had selected and nurtured since her youth, it is all the more shocking to hear that such crimes were committed around the time of major tournaments in places directly managed by the state, including the locker rooms at ice skating facilities in the Taereung and Jincheon national training centers.

This is an incident that lays bare a widespread South Korean phenomenon of people abusing their power to commit sexual assault. But we also should not overlook the specific elements here – namely the state-led elite sports training system and the insular culture in the athletic community. Most South Korean athletes begin elite training in elementary school. If they fall out of their trainer’s favor, their athletic career is basically done for. Even when athletes summon the courage to speak out, the ones responsible for disciplinary action are athletic federations, and their punishments are often a slap on the wrist. This is why the primary responsibility can be said to lie with the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee and the Korean Skating Union. Results announced the day before from a KSOC survey on abuse in the sports world showed only 1.7% of respondents reporting experiences of sexual abuse – but it is difficult to take those findings at face value.

On Jan. 9, the government announced plans to increase punishments for sexual assault in the sports community and prevent perpetrators from working with related groups in South Korea and overseas or finding employment abroad. It also announced possible measures including enlisting human rights experts to revise related regulations, conducting a full-scale study under private sector leadership, improving camp training conditions, and increasing support and protections for victims.

This is nowhere near good enough. In addition to holding the KSOC and the relevant officials sternly accountable, we also need to fundamentally examine the current elite sports development system. Beyond a stern judicial judgment against the perpetrator, we also urgently need a response from the National Assembly on the currently dormant #MeToo legislation. Emerging from the courtroom on Dec. 17 during Cho’s trial, Shim said, “Before, I couldn’t imagine setting foot in the courtroom because I was afraid to face him, but I made the difficult decision to appear because I felt it was necessary to state the truth so that he would be sternly punished.”

South Koreans remember Shim from her performances at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, where she came from behind with half a lap remaining in the women’s 3,000m relay, and the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, where she shrugged off a painful loss in the individual event to successfully fight for a gold medal with her relay teammates. The bravery she showed today will also be long remembered.

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]